IT student nabbed for posing as celebrity mom in online extortion modus

The Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) on Wednesday announced the arrest of a female college student in Quezon City for allegedly posing as host Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan in an extortion modus.

PNP-ACG director Senior Superintendent Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar said that Myca Acobo Aranda of Barangay Bagbag, Novaliches, Quezon City studying at the Kings College of the Philippines was arrested in an entrapment operation after she withdrew the money sent to Smart Padala by friends of Laxa-Pangilinan.

Eleazar said that the suspect, who is from Western Buyagan, La Trinidad, Benguet created fake Facebook accounts using the names, pictures, and personal circumstances of Laxa-Pangilinan and her four children.

Aranda used these fake accounts to reach out to friends and relatives of the celebrity mom and asked them to donate money for her outreach program.

Maricel’s husband Anthony Pangilinan revealed that Facebook user with profile name Suzette was asked by the suspect to donate P5,000 to their daughters’ outreach program in the Cordillera Administrative Region. Suzette was convinced to send the money to ‘Myca Aranda’ through LBC money remittance.

Eleazar also said that the Pangilinan couple was told that the same Facebook user asked money from their friends and relatives.

Aranda is an Information Technology (IT) student who can hide her real identity and delete digital evidence of her gadgets.

Eleazar said they found out that the suspect was using two Globe prepaid SIM card numbers to demand money from friends and relatives of Maricel supposedly for her different outreach programs.

“The electronic gadgets that we are using have digital fingerprints that were embedded to all gadgets and these digital fingerprints will be seen on the gadgets that we are communicating online,” said Eleazar.

The suspect will be charged for violation of section 4b3 (Identity Theft) of Republic Act 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012), Section 4a (Child Abuse) of Republic Act 7610, and Article 315 (Swinding/Estafa) of the Revised Penal Code in relation to section 6 of RA 10175. —Trisha Macas/ALG, GMA News