Laptop buyers, beware

MANILA, Philippines — Tempted to buy a laptop at an amazingly low price? Think again, you could end up in trouble. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) issued this warning on Wednesday as it announced the arrest of a salesman who was selling laptops at very low prices via www.tipidpc.com. It turned out that the laptops were stolen. NBI Director Nestor M. Mantaring said Delver Dizon, 31, a resident of 153 Reparo St. of Baesa district in Caloocan City was cornered by investigators using a modern technology to trace the laptop that was forcibly taken from a parked car. In a report to Mantaring, the Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division headed by Assistant Regional Director Vicente de Guzman III disclosed that the complainant’s laptop was stolen sometime in July inside his car that was parked at a gasoline station in Magallanes Village, Makati City. The complainant, a lawyer whose name was withheld, said he bought his Toshiba Qosmio laptop worth P80,000 only recently. On August 6, the victim found an online advertisement at website www.tipidpc.com offering to sell a cheap Toshiba Qosmio laptop for P16,500. He then got in touch with the seller and arranged to consummate the deal on August 12. Unknown to the seller, the prospective buyer went to the NBI office and asked for assistance. An entrapment operation was set at a fast food parlor on Taft corner UN Avenues in Malate, Manila, just a minute’s walk away from the NBI headquarters. At the appointed date and time, the seller who turned out to be Delver Dizon arrived with the offered laptop computer in tow. After Dizon received the marked money from the poseur-buyer, NBI agents posted nearby approached and arrested him. According to the NBI report, when the laptop was turned on during investigation, the name of the complainant appeared on the monitor and Dizon failed to present the documents showing ownership of the laptop. A Dell computer was also seized from Dizon and he refused to tell on how he acquired it, said the report. He was subsequently charged with violation of the Anti-Fencing Law before the Manila City Prosecutor Office for inquest. The lesson, says Director Mantaring, is for the public to buy laptops in legitimate computer shops which offer warranty. The arrest of Dizon came two weeks after NBI agents cornered two Filipino-Americans and their American cohort who have been victimizing people selling laptops via shopping website eBay.ph. NBI Regional Director Ric Diaz, chief of staff of the Deputy Director for Intelligence Services, ordered an entrapment operation following complaints by a number of victims against the group of thieves, which used bogus checks to pay for laptops and other gadgets up for sale. The suspects, identified as Filipino-Americans Virgil Anthony Pineda and Reynaldo Lumbo and their American colleague as Robert Andrew Hornick, are now facing charges of estafa (fraud). - GMANews.TV