Beware chatmates, the Bureau of Customs warned the public anew as it revealed a syndicate victimizing social media users.
The Customs-Ninoy Aquino International Airport branch said the syndicate continues using the BOC’s name for fraud, either through mail or the Internet.
The bureau warned the people not to entertain any notice, supposedly from the BOC, about a package and a certain amount to be paid for the parcel to be delivered to the addressee.
“Bureau of Customs warns the public from scams that use the agency’s name in asking for payments. The bureau does not collect payments through money remittance or personal bank accounts. #ScamAlert,” the BoC-NAIA posted on its official Facebook account.
The bureau urged the public to report the matter to the offices of the Commissioner, Enforcement and Security Service and Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service for appropriate action.
The syndicate usually gets in touch with prospective victims online via chat or dating websites, the BOC explained.
After several weeks or even months, the perpetrators would send a message to their victims through email, promising to send gifts ranging from luxury bags, jewelry, laptop computers and other electronic gadgets via international door-to-door parcel.
Victims would be sent a tracking number and invoice for the purported shipment.
Reports showed that a woman in Mindanao lost P22,100 to a foreigner con artist, whom she met and befriended through social media and later promised to send her a package.
Soon after, the woman got an email from her chat mate with an attached letter, supposedly from the Bureau of Customs, informing her about the arrival of the package in the Philippines and the payment of its duties and taxes through Western Union.
The woman said she lost almost all her lifetime savings.
According to the BOC, not all perpetrators of this scam are foreigners, with some involving locals.
In April 2018, Manila International Airport Authority general manager Eddie Monreal revealed the existence of a syndicate engaged in the so-called “Package Deliver” scheme, using the NAIA in the illegal activity.
Monreal warned the public following the arrest of a 34-year-old woman in an entrapment operation conducted by operatives of the MIAA-Airport Police Department based on a complaint lodged by Shirley Campones.
Campones sought the airport authorities’ help after an unidentified person sent a text message, asking her to bring some $11,000 (P563,000) in exchange for a package sent to her by one Fred McNeil, who befriended her through social media.
Prior to the text message, Campones said McNeil told her he was coming to Manila and bringing packages, but he was being held at the airport in Turkey because Customs authorities there found several expensive jewelries in his bag.
The texter asked to meet at a restaurant at the departure level of NAIA Terminal 1, saying that he/she already had the package from McNeil. Campones was advised to bring the money in exchange for it.
But Campones became doubtful and sought the help of APD personnel, who set an entrapment operation.
Campones then met a woman named Miriam Kanoute, a resident of Makati City, who introduced herself as a friend of McNeil. The APD men then apprehended Kanoute after Campones handed to her a white envelope containing the money.