Warning for Filipinos

Filipinos warned over net scams
By: MARIECAR JARA-PUYOD, Gulf Today: 3/17/2007

FILIPINOS in Dubai and the Northern Emirates have been warned and cautioned about Internet scams. Consul General Antonio Curameng issued the reminder during the monthly community meeting at the Philippine Consulate General on Friday.

He received a memorandum from the Department of Foreign Affairs-Office of the Personnel and Administrative Services assistant secretary Jocelyn Batoon-Garcia, about an internet scam from a supposed British organisation and using the e-mail address of the Philippine Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as the sender.

"Please don't be gullible. Think very well before you respond," said Curameng as he reminded the community not to put themselves at risk.

He then related of circumstances of people being fooled and who were forced to spend thousands and even millions of dollars because they did not think twice before responding to emails too good to be true.

Garcia's memorandum stated: "The department received a report from the Phnom Penh Philippine Embassy regarding an e-mail scam that used the post's e-mail address as the sender. According to the report, the e-mail came from a certain Frank John of the Sealant Lottery Organisation, informing the recipient that he/she has won the Sealant Lottery International and indicates the e-mail address of the post as the name of the sender."

"The sender used the post's e-mail address without any authority and also requires personal information from the recipient in order to allegedly claim the purported prize," Garcia also wrote down.

"Please don't entertain such e-mails," she continued , as she reminded all missions to alert the public about the scam.

Lottery award
THE Garcia memorandum had an attached example of the internet scam supposed to have come from the Philippine Embassy in Phnom Penh with Mr. Frank John as the consultant.
The e-mail dated Jan.21, and posted at 7:09 a.m. stated that the recipient was a winner of the "annual final draws of the Sealant Lottery International" conducted in England on Jan.19.
Stating that the lottery programme was "promoted by our group of philanthropists headed by the British Lottery Board" and that the recipient who was supposed to be the winner was "from an exclusive list of 25,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate bodies," that certain Mr. Frank John then asked the recipient to keep from the public his winning until all of his cash prize of two million pounds have been remitted to him.

"Sealant Lottery International turned out to be bogus," Curameng told The Gulf Today, as he pointed out the indiscriminate use of a Philippine post e-mail address.