Phone user loses P18K in ‘budol’ text scam

A man fell victim to the recent influx of spam text messages and lost at least P18,000.

Rolando said he received a text message from an unknown number recruiting jobs with a salary of P3,000 to P8,000 a day.

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) earlier said that it is now looking into reports of barrage of spam text messages recruiting Filipinos into jobs with “too good to be true” high salaries.

Upon clicking the message, he was directed to an online game which started his conversation with an anonymous person who convinced him to give P200.

“Tuwang-tuwa ako. So, P200 naging P324, na-withdraw ko. Pumasok sa account ko,” Rolando said in Jun Veneracion’s “24 Oras” report on Wednesday.

(I was so excited. My P200 bet became P324 and it entered my account.)

He was encouraged to continue the online game for half a day and later realized that he already transferred almost P18,000.

“Nag-transfer ako ng mga P400, tumaas nang tumaas, naging P1,000 ulit. Hindi ko namalayan na dahil nakaka-enjoy din ang paglalaro online. Parang doon, parang na-hypnotize ako doon,” Rolando said.

(I transferred about P400, it went higher until it became P1,000. I didn’t realize that because I also enjoy playing online game. It was like I was hypnotized.)

“Iwasan natin yung easy money na paraan (Let's avoid the easy money means),” he added.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) anti-cybercrime group warned the public to review and check the authenticity of the messages received before replying to them.

Meanwhile, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) advised to ignore the spam text messages.

“Delikado po kapag pumasok na po kayo sa link na ‘yun. Konektado na ang inyong gadgets doon at posibleng manakaw lahat ng information doon,” NTC Deputy Commissioner Edgardo Cabarios said.

(It is dangerous when you open that link. Your gadgets are already connected there and it is possible to steal all your information.)

The NTC ordered telcos to blast messages warning their subscribers about the proliferation of job recruitment spam text messages.—Richa Noriega/LDF, GMA News