BAGUIO CITY – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Baguio extension office recently warned the public on the prevalence of advance fishing scams using legitimate lending companies to avoid being duped of their hard earned money into purported easy to acquire loans.
SEC Baguio extension office Director lawyer Regina May Cojucom-de Guzman said that their office had been receiving numerous referrals from the Regional Anti-Cyber Crime Unit (RACU) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on the legitimacy of lending companies being used by scammers offering easy to acquire loans that eventually turn out to be scams in the end where the firms being used for said illegal transactions have been tampered, including the identities of the officials, among others.
She pointed out that after getting the contact details of their prospective victims, the scammers lead them to a platform where such illegal transactions will be done as the same could easily be deleted to remove the evidence for the possible filing of charges against them in the future.
Director de Guzman explained that the modus of the scammers is that they immediately call their prospective victims after having transacted with them informing them on the approval of their loans but prior to the release of such loans, they are obliged to pay more than half of the loaned amount which is ] unreasonable and not feasible in the first place, thus, people should be warned not to be enticed by the said practice.
According to her, of the 12 referrals that the SEC received from the RACU, all of the involved companies have tampered identifications that make it appear that the offered easy-to-acquire loans are true, thus, it is still important for people to verify with the concerned government regulatory agency the legitimacy of the company’s operations, among other details, to guide them in their decision-making.
She advised individuals being offered such easy-to-acquire loans to first validate the legitimacy of the operation of the lending company and avoid transacting with the same through the social media platforms or other applications because the SEC had imposed a moratorium on online lending applications way back in 2021.
She cited an example where an individual who attempted to loan PhP60,000 from the said scammers but the said person was duped into paying in advance PhP45,000 and never heard from the lenders as they suddenly disappeared from the online social media platform, thus, this should serve as a lesson to those who are easily being duped into such obvious scamming activities of unscrupulous individuals.
If people cannot avoid acquiring loans from online platforms, she reminded them to avail of such loans from the online applications of duly-registered lending companies and people should make it a habit to always visit the SEC website to ensure that the companies they are transacting with are legitimate and not just fly-by-night enders.
She reiterated previous reminders for people to be wary about the proliferation of too-good-to-be-true offers from scammers and for them to immediately seek the assistance of concerned government agencies on the legitimacy of such schemes before entertaining them to avoid losing their hard earned money. By Dexter A. See