Be careful to be conservative. If there's a story that tempts you to pull out your wallet, just call the site management to ask whether you're being taken before you throw away your hard-earned savings.
As we’ve written in the past, in our articles in this blog, fraud is something that we all have to work together to prevent. At Christian Filipina, we strive to screen out potential members who appear to have questionable motives. We also screen some of the internal site mail, track login history, and ban users who are reported as violating our terms of service. This is part of the value we add that our members appreciate and why hundreds and hundreds of our members have become upgraded members on our site. We also try to keep our members as educated as possible about how fraud can happen over the internet, so that they can understand and take proper action if they find themselves in a situation like this. Please read our past blog archives, and this letter, if you would like to learn more about these issues.
In our effort to educate, we have in the past given specific examples of fraud that was conducted on our website. We are going to continue this tradition with this post. Please fasten your seatbelts.
We make an effort to keep in touch with our members, and to encourage them to ask us questions about specific members, to report violations, and to ask us advice. The following were collected from several members who unfortunately had bad news to share with us over the past several months.
- [...] I was new in using the net but should have read the warning. I was deceived and defrauded in a way of $3,503.00. Because I am a born again christian I was too trusting to a woman claiming to be a Christian too,on her profile and thru email and phone. I don’t regret helping but the reasons I was told turn out to be all lies. She claim to be graduating nursing student with balance in school. Then being an orphan raise by grandma and suddenly grandma in hospital so I felt sorry for her and in one month of sept.2009 I sent her that money thru western union. I caught her lying when I asked her the name of all the medicines she claimed to have paid for her grandma and she can’t remember any and yet a graduating nurse? I am a nurse myself so then I knew i was a victim of a scam. I dig in more on your site and found she was using several profile name. I knew her as apple, the other names she used are Rhonnie, Kelly,Precela. Her real name is Brina S. Bentolero of 14 camella dr. Zamboanga, zamboanga city 7000. The last Add. she directed me to send her the money was Barra Opol, Cagayan de Oro City. I sent her email telling her that I will write this net to expose her scam and to warn other Christian men about her being an angel of deception.[...]You can post my letter for others to learn from my experience. I don’t blame the net. [...] Sincerely, [...]
- [] I was defrauded out of more than a couple thousand dollars. I never thought someone I was trying to help come to the U.S. to work would ever deceive and betray me, but that’s what happened. She was very cunning. Well a person lives and learns. Unfortunately, I thought I knew how to spot and handle a fraud, but I did not. I really got burned. I’m wiser now and know I must use all the tools available to make sure someone isn’t a fraud. Here are a few of the emails sent to me by Paula Reyes and her accomplices. The really sad thing is I thought I was helping someone come to the U.S. to work on a ‘work visa’ they were obtaining and not as a girlfriend. My efforts to help someone backfired. This Paula Reyes was/is part of a scam operation. Apparently she was living in General Santos City and finishing college in August when she initially emailed me. She claimed she had no family and was out of money. She said her mom abandoned her when she was 3 years old. After a few weeks she said she had been offered an “urgent hire” position as a caregiver at El Camino Hospital Foundation in California – which just happened to be in the same City where I lived. Then she claimed she needed to fly to Manila to “out process” with the caregiver agency who hired her. She claimed she needed money to fly to Manila from General Santos City. Then, when in Manila, she claimed to have gotten robbed and cut with a knife which gave her tetanus. Because of this she needed to spend a few days in the hospital…… It goes on and on. The bottom line is she and her accomplices Imelda Cruz and Norma Templado all conspired to extract money from me through this elaborate hoax/fraud. Please inform your website subscribers. I have many, many more emails in addition to these I have attached….
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Subject: my flight details
From: “paula reyes”
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2009 22:50:20 -0800
To: <>
departure- manila, philippines ( MNL ) fri, 18 sep 2009 22:30
arrival- san francisco, san francisco international,
united states of america ( SFO ) fri, 18 sep 2009 20:00
flight- PR104 philippine airlines
details- economy non-stop
[]by tuesday i need to go to manila to go to the us embassy.
i need 7,000 pesos fpr my plane ticket going to manila and i
have to stay there until my flight plus my terminal fee of 150 $
and room rent and allowance and its 5,000 pesos. []this would be my last wish.
pls help e. this is it []we will meet soon which is Gods plan.
7,000 pesos for plane ticket going to manila
150$ for terminal fee
5,000 pesos for room rent and food, fare allowances for 1 week
pls help me for this []. thank you so much for making me happy and granted my wish.
im sure i can have good life in your place and with you.
may God bless you and guide you always. i miss you
missing you
paula
-
From:”paula reyes”
Date:Sun, 6 Sep 2009 16:03:32 -0800
To:[]
hi [] i got the number of my agency. but if you call my agency today no one will
answer you coz its holiday here in the philippines.
but you can call my manager on her mobile phone.
this is my agency number- +630835529899
this is my manager number- +639073933167
[], i already pack my things and i am very much ready here.
pls pray me to God on my travel. thank you []and may God bless you and guide you always.
missing you
paula
-
Subject:Re: []/Paula Reyes
From:”JRS Agency For Abroad”
Date:Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:27:32 -0800
To:”[]
Mr. [],
I Just Wan’t To Remind You About Paula’s Account.
Did She Tell You That She Borrow The 500 US $, Because She Need To Have 1500 US $.
The Need That To Complete The Amount That She Need To Open A $ Account.
My Concern Mr. [] Is, That 500 US $ Is An Agency Fund. And I Need To Have It By
Tomorrow Because The General Management Do A Monthly Audit For This Month.
That Is My Problem Now Mr. []. If I Don’t Have That They Will Fire Me.
I Have My Family Mr. []. I Really Need To Have This Job. I Hope You Understand My Part.
God Bless And More Power!!!
Respectfully Your’s
Imelda R. Cruz
JR’s Agency For Abroad
Manager
Quezon City Branch
- Finally, here was a case that we heard of from one of our ladies in the Philippines – it concerns a man she met on another site (not ours) claiming to be from UK/London. I am including it here because I think the same kind of thing could happen anywhere. He supposedly sent her a package containing $20,000 and the fraud was going to be to have her pay some kind of fee of hundreds of dollars to get the package (which would then be empty). Somehow, there was even a tracking number created that appeared to be a real package in a shipping company website. I don’t know how they did that, but I can tell you from reading this, that it is a hoax. Here is the letter she received from him:
My Love!
Loving you is the best thing that has ever happened to me in so many years. My world has been so lonely until I found you and I have promised myself to love and cherish u as my wife.
Honey, I will come to spend time with you and you and have lots of fun too. I want us to spend our time in the classiest places in your country. What we share Honey is very special and I want you to know that I love you from the inner most part of my heart..
I think that your need is mine too. And meanwhile, i don’t want any worry in your life other than your hard working which determine to make a better and meaningful life. Just accept this token from me. It is nothing to show appreciative for the happiness which you have brought to my life since I met you, God has really blessed me with wealth but i never found true love. But I believe with you my searching for love has come to and send. Since there was no time to contact you any longer becos I never plan to live for Ireland, for your bank account details to do a bank transaction and bank transfer will take me a long process, I had no option than to sealed the money in the laptop park for your to care for yourself till I come.
Darling, I have sent the gift to you before i left for Ireland for the contract i told you, i had an urgent call, I have to move immediately .honey these are the items: HP Product Laptop, Rose Flower and xmas flower, Sunny Digital Camera, Gold necklace with ring (engagement ring), christmas card, two of my personal pictures and the sum of (£10,000) pounds sealed in the same computer pack. Darling, i want you to use £5,000 pounds to care for yourself and the passport and keep £5,000 for our funs when I come to your country
I sent it to your name and address you gave me. Name’ []Address: [], DAVAO CITY PHILS.800 Phone: (+63910[]) home and Emails ([]), from my inquiry the pack will arrive to your country and your house 4 to 6 day’s time.
Please let me know when you receive the Gift.
Below attached is a picture of the Laptop, and pack containing the items so that you can identify it?
This is the company I sent the gift so that you can get the information and movement of the Gift
ATLAS AIR WORLDWIDE HOLDINGS Website: http://www.atlasairworld.com/holdings/
Username: [] Password: [] Tracking NO: 7383632
NB: Go to the company website click tracking and paste the Username and password to long in, you see your information and thereafter click below to paste the Tracking no: to see the movement of the parcel to know when the gift will arrive.
Please do this often and often. Take care of yourself till we meet
with love from Engr. Steve Mathins.
Let me conclude this sad section with the reminders:
- Do not ever send money to anyone you have never met in person
- Take your time – especially if you are new to online dating and/or new to international social networking – so that you can learn the ropes of what warning signs to avoid. We recommend you take several months to learn about this new way to meet people, and to meet people casually, rather than jumping into anything without meeting in person.
- Insist on chatting on webcam, to be sure that the person in the pictures is the one who you are talking with, that the person typing is the one who is on the webcam, and that the person you are talking with is focused on talking with you, rather than chatting with several other people at the same time.
- Be cautious of anyone who immediately wants you to switch to using yahoo messenger rather than correspond on our site – many scammers know that our site has a reputation for immediately suspending those who ask for money and so they try to only relate their sob stories or webcam sex invitations using your yahoo messenger. If you hear any of those kinds of stories or invitations from anyone you met on our site, write to us with the user’s number, and we will suspend them immediately.
- If you ever have anyone you met on our site ask you for money or suggest something illegal or immoral, contact us immediately using the feedback form on our site. We are partners with you in helping to bridge the gaps between cultures, and we can only do that well when we communicate to you and you communicate to us.
We find that some people with good instincts tend to have an easy time choosing quality people to meet and sensing which to avoid, and some other people have to learn the hard way. I hope this information we are sharing helps those of you who need to learn the hard way, to learn it a little more quickly and less painfully than some have had to learn.
We also decided to end this with a few good testimonials we received recently when we wrote to some of our members who had canceled their membership:
- I am married now to a sweet kind good lady from Gingoog city, Mindano[...] Maby the girls here are more down to earth with moral values one would hope. Often the prettier they are the more difficult they are. Guys need to be very carefull here online looking for wives. Women are often willing to say anything and do anything to get a guy. The asain exterior charm and feminity can hide a scheeming, cold, materialistic woman. Guys can”t see it sometimes. The longer some women are online the more desperate they seem to be, and jaded. My wife recently told me about a local girl who was chatting 42 guys and getting money from many of them. Guys can be so niave and gullable. Of course I think many men are treating sweet, kindhearted, simple, girls shabbily online from what I hear. You know, how wonderfull a good filipina girl can be. They are “THE BEST” wives in the world, and best in Asia. Christian background. Similar culture to America. Adaptable and family oriented. They are mostly vulnerable, niave, and simple, and sweet, and looking for love, and I don’t think they should have to suffer the bad treatment. Some guys don’t have a clue how genuine a good Filipina can be. I hope your goodhearted clients all find good husbands espercially the ones who have kids and need help. I have a family there to support too. They are so poor and need my help. Gods plan I guess. You know I think a poor family there is capable of raising a better woman than many “rich” families here. No attitude, bad language, tatoos, smoking, drinking, and running around, selfish, materialistic, cold attitude, plastic ect. To improve your site, you need better photos, and a space to allow the woman to describe herself and what she wants in a man. A womans eyes tell her personality, and usually match what she states about herself and what she wants in a man, and in life with him , this should be clear in her own words. This can aid in helping all find a better match. Happy ending.
- Yes,I met someone from your website and we are to be married hopefully,in January.
- I canceled my membership because I found the love of my life on your website, She is beyond any woman I ever dreamed of. I thank God for your webiste and ask God to bless those who seek somone special on your website. I have found my pinay.
- I cancelled on your site because I found that special someone on your site.I live in a place where born again Christians with good morals are few and far between.I briefly tried a site in the U.S. only to find the same horror stories I had heard about.When I saw your site I tried again only because you were a Christian site.I have never dated outside of my country before and now I am going to Cebu to meet in person for the first time [].With web cams and messenger the technology is amazing to learn more about a future partner.I want to thank you for a site where people with values and morals can go to meet other people…God Bless you …and p.s. we are making wedding arrangements as we speak I am confident all will go well in our meeting…Thanks,again
God Bless to all our members, especially those who are not scammers, but even them, may those who are dishonest and not humble be touched by the Spirit to leave behind those ways, and may those who do follow the commandments of the Lord be rewarded and live in His love and in the community of loving believers.
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