Tags: Pets
By Anna Valmero
QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA—Dog owner Ferdinand Lopez Robillos learned about being cautious of potential identity theft scammers the hard way. A true-blue pet lover, he recently fell victim of an online scam involving the supposed adoption of eight pomeranian puppies.
The scam involved a pet adoption announcement at ayosdito.ph by a Singaporean who is leaving the country after his wife died in a car accident. He supposedly posted an announcement for pet adoption before he leaves the country to make sure his eight pomeranian puppies can get a good home.
Moved by the story and thinking of the puppies who will turn homeless anytime soon, Robillos offered his help.
When he emailed the Singaporean, Robillos was requested to send scanned copies of his driver’s license and Philippine passport. To assuage his fears of sending the documents, the same email contained the scanned image of the passport of the Singaporean dog owner.
Seeing that his contact works for the Manila office of the United Nations, where his father used to work before, Robillos believed that the transaction is not questionable and sent copies of his personal documents.
After emailing his personal documents, Robillos was asked again to transfer money to a local bank account amounting to P8,000 for the paperwork involved in shipping the puppies to his place.
“I was hesitant to give the amount because I wanted to talk to him first over the phone and see the puppies first. When he refused to do that I called off the arrangement. After sometime, I realized it was a scam after a fellow dog owner told me that my name is being used for that same story,” said Robillos.
The scammers used his name, “Ferdinand Lopez”, thinking that his middle name is his surname. Further research pointed that the group has been operating for a while now and might have been using the passport and IDs of their victims to avoid being charged themselves.
“The moral of the story is that you should always be cautious of transactions online. Anyone can post a story and make it look real. So you have to take care of sending personal documents and as much as possible, be sure to talk to the person first. If they cannot talk to you, then chances are that they are scammers,” said Robillos.
Robillos wrote to ayosdito.ph about the incident but was unable to get a reply. So, to prevent other pet owners from getting victimized as well, he said he decided to tell his story.
Meanwhile, Web Safety Philippines founder Sonnie Santos said that what happened to Robillos is a phishing scam, in which the scammers extracted information by posing as someone via email complete with a detailed passport. While the scammers were unable to get money from Robillos, the passport and driver’s license that he gave are open for use for whatever purpose the scammers see fit.
He urged Filipino users to practice “online ethics”, for example not posting sensitive data such as your mother’s maiden name and complete address on social networking sites like Facebook to avoid identity theft.
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was also emailed by this person recently with the same name and place. the exact amount and the scanned licensed. is there a way these people can be caught and be jailed? The first time I read, I know already this is a scam and I just pretend to ride on.. and that’s exactly the information i got from him though he’s offering another puppy …