Volume 1, Issue No. 34
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . .
Our latest as of Monday, March 30, 2020
~ As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, authorities on the side are warning of the proliferation of scammers out to fleece people of financial assistance from the government. No less than the Prime Minister of Canada issues an alert to warn of text scams. In Toronto's Filipino community, sweet-talking scam artists, aided by ignorant newspaper publishers, are also capitalizing on fears and uncertainties to lure potential victims.
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IN WAKE OF CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Scammers Make Capital of Fears, Uncertainties
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
"Fraud includes the pretense of knowledge when knowledge there is none". - Benjamin Cardozo
Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned about a "text scam" about the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) which provides $2,000 a month for up to four months for workers who lose their income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Info at:https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2020/03/introduces-canada-emergency-response-benefit-to-help-workers-and-businesses.html ).
Previously, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre also issued a bulletin alert advising people to be vigilant. "As COVID-19 continues to spread globally, watch out for associated scams," it warned. "Fraudsters want to profit from consumers' fears, uncertainties and misinformation.
"Fraudster are exploiting the crisis to facilitate fraud and cyber crime," the Centre emphasized. (More info at: https://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/features-vedette/2020/covid-19-eng.htm).
Swindlers or sharks are a thriving species in the Filipino community. They are all over the place; some are enabled by ignorant media, others are even supported by community organizations headed by so-called leaders who do the cover-up because they are, in fact, complicit.
A recent forum aiming to create awareness of existing scams had instead focused the center of attention on a group of individuals of dubious backgrounds and interests. That was ironic. The attempt to shine the light on others backfired, exposing their ulterior motive.
From the moment the World Health Organization warned of a "very high" risk of coronavirus early this month to its spread globally, thus a pandemic, the scammers were already playing their game.
I know. As the number of cases and deaths from the virus spiked, my different email addresses are constantly getting a daily average of 15 so-called offers of "Covid-19 cash relief" or "Covid-19 remuneration" or "Covid-19 credit". Half of these goes to the spam folders but the other half stays with my regular emails.
I never dared to open them, or click the links. I just delete them without as much as worrying where the email came from, family or friend, whatever. Admittedly, I learn an expensive lesson when in the past I opened emails as fast as they arrived. A desktop and one of my laptops got infected and had to bring them to a computer shop for repairs.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre advises "Never respond or click on suspicious links and attachments; never give out your personal or financial details; and if you didn't initiate contact, you don't know who you're communicating to".
In our community, these scammers are sweet-talkers, charmers who knew how to seduce and exploit potential victims by offers of help - for free - such as the availability of lawyers who could assist them in their problems.
It's a lure. Once the innocent prey takes the bait, the seduction process begins. As the saying goes: "If you think the deal they are offering is too good to be true, it probably is".
The question that arises now is why would such service, assuming it's true, be given without cost by the group knowing nobody in its roster of officials and members is a lawyer? This is where the scam kicks off.
A handful of entertainment news outlets has been propagating the scammers as if they're the community's gift to save us from being fleeced. That's the problem. A tabloid fronts as a fighter against fraud yet allows itself to be the conduit of the scammers to attract victims.
The coronavirus pandemic is exacting a heavy toll around the world. Thousands of lives have been lost. The fears are real. As a community, we should root out the scammers in our midst, they who knew our anxieties and capitalize on them to hoodwink us. (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).
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