CEBU CITY – The National Bureau of Investigation-Central Visayas (NBI Region 7) arrested a woman who allegedly duped several people through various scams.
Juvelyn de los Trico, of Lower Nivel Hills, Barangay Lahug, this city, was arrested in an entrapment operation inside a mall last Tuesday.
The NBI Region 7 said the suspect had divested at least P200,000 from her supposed victims.
Being a former co-worker in a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company, Sheena Faustino, one of the complainants, said she trusted the suspect when she offered her a job as a customer service representative in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Faustino, 31, said De Los Trico demanded P30,000 from her for the processing of her visa and other documents.
Faustino said she became suspicious when De Los Trico sent her a blurred photo of her visa and that instead of female, the document indicated she was a male.
“I thought she was in Dubai because she told me the company where she was supposedly working was hiring more people. I was a direct hiring that’s why she was the one who made the offer,” Faustino said.
Faustino finally sought help from the NBI Region 7 when the suspect offered her another job but she had to pay P12,000 first.
Lawyer Renan Augustus Oliva, NBI Region 7 director, said more complainants showed up after De Los Trico’s arrest.
A fruit vendor named Dominic Largo said the suspect convinced him to invest in a corporation which turned out to be non-existent.
Largo said he sent P56,000 but De los Trico failed to deliver her promise that the money would earn after one week.
Largo said there were times when De los Trico identified herself as a pediatrician.
A classmate of the suspect in the elementary also went to the NBI Region 7 office last Thursday to report that she too was duped by De los Trico.
The woman said De Los Trico promised to buy her a smartphone at the time when the suspect was still based in Dubai.
No cellphone was given to me and when I asked for her to return the money, she never did,” she said.
The woman added De los Trico also took a P190,000 from her through her credit cards supposedly to process her job application in Dubai.
When interviewed by reporters, the suspect denied all the accusations hurled against her.
Oliva said charges for violating the Migrant Workers Act (Republic Act No. 8042) in relation to the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10175) have been filed against the suspect.
Oliva said De los Trico created fake Facebook accounts of the companies which she claimed she was affiliated with to make her modus believable.