Filipinos warned vs Internet love scams

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MANILA — The Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur warns Filipinos against falling victims to Internet scams, most of which involve asking for money on the pretext of love.

The Embassy has received and acted on complaints from victims who were scammed by supposed lovers they met through chatrooms and Facebook messaging.

A Hong Kong-based Filipina told the Embassy that she met an alleged Malaysia-based Briton on a social website who became her fiancé after two months.

With their series of conversations on the Internet and with promising words of this alleged Briton, the Filipina sent huge sums of money to him. The Briton was not heard from since.

Two Filipinas were victimized by an alleged Malaysia-based Translink Express Courier which asked them to claim alleged parcels from their supposed lovers which were held up at the Customs office. They sent several amounts via Western Union, but were not able to get anything.

A male Malaysian national met a woman, who is purportedly a Filipina, through Facebook and Skype with account names Yukico Taro and Kico Taro. Accordingly, the woman, who is very attractive, constantly contacted the Malaysian national thru his Facebook account. As time went on, the two did indecent acts thru webcam. Unknown to the man, the woman or the syndicate behind her recorded his actions. The video is being used against the Malaysian national, with the threat that said video will be uploaded to YouTube if he will not send her money.

The Embassy has forwarded these information to the Philippine National Police and the Royal Malaysian Police for their information and further action. These Internet scams are just a tip of the iceberg, and there may possibly be more which have not been reported.

The Embassy reminds Filipino nationals and our Malaysian friends to exercise caution in dealing with people online, particularly those they have not met personally and who ask for money on the pretext of love.