• Online is now the normal place to do business, meet friends, buy things for everyday needs, and yes, to indulge in leisure too.
• It’s also where people out to do a simple scam now roam
• Beware of very friendly persons who are fast to start a relationship, borrow money, and then disappear into cyberspace
• One man who was a victim of this soon found social media posts describing the female scammer and her borrowing scheme
• In this story, three young men tell their tales
Online (Photo from Unsplash)
Online is now the normal place to do business, meet friends, buy things for everyday needs, and yes, to indulge in leisure too.
And because people now meet online, scammers have found their way into that normal setting. You’ve heard many forms of online scams – the ones that have cleverly enticed people to invest, or to purchase products that do not deliver half of what they promised in an online ad.
But you have likely not heard of an online girl friend who has been making the rounds in social media befriending men, even borrowing cash from them, and then leaving them with only a Facebook account address.
This story started with the sad tale of woe of a young man who related how a girlfriend had earned his trust and then left him with a debt of more than P6,000. He seemed to be an isolated case, a case of cyber love, but we soon found out that two other men had the same experience with the same woman. And how did we find that out? The two men started telling their sad stories on their Facebook accounts.
Here’s the story of these three young men. Be warned that you may be the next victim of this “ghost friend” who disappears after making a loan which is sent to her through GCash.
Franz, 24, a resident of Bulacan, said he lost more than P6,000 to a love interest he met in an international online broadcasting application called "LiveMe."
He developed what to him seemed like a genuine friendship, with a 29-year-old local female streamer who started as his "supporter." Slowly she gained his trust.
“She started to support my live broadcasts through gifts. These gifts were jewelry which I converted to cash. That’s how she gained my trust,” Franz said in a phone interview with Manila Bulletin.
The two became close online friends, talking on social media frequently. Soon they developed a casual mutual understanding. Franz thought their relationship leveled up when the female streamer asked him to keep her e-cash of P10,000.
"I trusted her more after she entrusted both her money and her Gmail account for safekeeping," he said in Pilipino.
Although their relationship did not have a “label,” Franz said he felt the sincerity of the female streamer in between their virtual interactions. However, when he started to earn as a broadcaster, the girl began to borrow money from him.
"At first, she borrowed some load, then she borrowed P2,500, until it became P6,000 plus," he said in Pilipino.
Franz admitted that he did not notice that the girl had started to avoid him, and avoided the subject of paying him.
"She would set the date of her payment. And then it did not come. It became a cycle, until she became cold. She would even throw a fit every time I gave the impression that I won't be able to lend her money," he said in Pilipino.
When his love interest suddenly "ghosted" him, it took a while before Franz accepted that he had been betrayed, or likely gypped.
Later, he discovered posts about the female streamer who uses different social media accounts to scam other men.
One of the guys who posted about the same scammer is Elias, a 22-year-old Manila resident. In an online interview, Elias revealed that he met the same girl in an online gaming community.
"I'm a founder of Mobile Legends (ML) esports community, where she applied as a manager. She called me frequently, but I didn’t return the calls because I was not interested in talking to her, not unless it's about the esports community," he shared in Pilipino.
Elias narrated how persistent the scammer was. There was even a time when she desperately called him asking for money.
“Kinukulit ako, then one time tumawag ulit, she’s crying, tapos sabi niya na-scam daw sya ng P20,000. Tapos gusto mangutang sakin. Hindi ko siya pinahiram ng pera kasi malaki yung hinihiram niya and besides hindi kami magkakilala personally (She was so persistent in calling me until one day she called, and she was crying. She said that she had been scammed and lost P20,000. She was borrowing money from me but I didn’t lend her because I don’t know her personally),” he said.
According to Elias, he brushed the incident aside. But one day, she volunteered to pay for the jersey prize of their community's "monthsary" tournament. The prize was worth P3,000.
"She said that she would pay for the jersey prize of the tournament because it's our community's monthsary. She asked me to pay for it first, but she didn't pay me back. When I asked for the money, she suddenly became cold towards the community," Elias said in Pilipino.
Like Franz, Elias researched about the girl and discovered that she's a scammer through other posts. Elias then decided to post a thread about her, tagging other victims and posting screenshots of his conversations with the girl.
Another victim of the same female scammer was Kiel, a 28-year-old Quezon City resident. He also posted about the same girl. According to him, the scammer was a friend’s ex-girlfriend and she had tried to borrowed P10,000 from him.
"She borrowed money and told me that any amount will do because she's going to pay for her rent balance. I gave her P1,000. When I asked for the money back to pay for my bills, she ignored my messages, so I posted about her; 1,000 is still 1,000. It's a small amount, but it's still money," Kiel said in Pilipino.
Both Elias and Kiel received messages from other victims who reacted to their experience with the same scammer. Apparently, the girl uses the same tactics with the other guys –she befriends them, borrows money from them, and vanishes.
So, for those who have not yet met this female scammer who is wandering around cyberspace visiting social media sites, be warned! When someone borrows cash from you over a social media account, take the way of the ghost accounts – vanish!