Being scammed online

Philippines
May 24, 2010 9:56pm CST
For these past few days I've been browsing to some of my emails at Tagged. A foreign guy just sent me a message that he was looking for a nanny to his 2 kids residing at U.K. His offer is so convincing, that he will pay half for my working visa and he will refund all my expenses while I'm processing all my documents. He told me to contact his travel agency to inquire for the requirements for visa. I did contacted his travel agency via email, Then the agency response for all the requirements and cost for processing of visa. I have doubt in his travel agency, because it does not contains any details about the company such as address, phone no. website and person in charge. So I emailed my employer to be, asking him for the full details of the travel agency just to be sure it is not fraud. He did not answer my email and he blocked his email ad. in which I could not contact him. Have you experienced being scammed here online?
1 person likes this
6 responses
@rsa101 (37968)
• Philippines
25 May 10
Well it is really hard to make out of it, maybe he got insulted when you told him you are doubting him to be fraud. But the best thing to do in here was to visit the travel agency he was telling you. You should have said to him that you wanted to visit the travel agency yourself to pay them personally and not telling that you are checking anything for them as scam. If they failed to reply on this then probably it is scam. I guess if you would really wanted a job abroad there is POEA that can guide you who to apply for at least you can safely apply there than those that are offered online without any proof that you will be hired.
@rsa101 (37968)
• Philippines
25 May 10
That only means you have to really be careful more so with the ones offered online. If in POEA there is a possibility that there are still scams from the inside what more can you expect from those online.
• Philippines
25 May 10
The travel agency that I have mentioned is based in U.K as what he said, I just wonder why there isn't a website for that travel agency. Most travel Agency has there own website to promote their services. As for the POEA, I tried it before also.. asking for all the Legal agencies for abroad. But still there are lots of agencies who has not renewed their contract in which the POEA cannot trace it. I applied some of the agencies here, that includes in the POEA list of agencies, but one of those are Illegal.
1 person likes this
@Jacobus1919 (1683)
• Philippines
25 May 10
yeah, too many people on the internet scamming people now a days. I have been scammed before but the situation was different. It was in fact when I was selling MMO gaming merchandise, the person that scammed me used a stolen Paypal account, I was shocked to see when the payment was reverted by the original owner of the account. Well, unluckily for me, I couldn't win the argument because I did not have proof of shipping since it was an electronic online good. It was around 80$ lost because some kid wanted to scam people.
• Philippines
25 May 10
sorry to hear about that, As for me I haven't paid the cost for processing because I doubted in that company so I make some verifications first. I tried to report that person in the website, But the website will just response as THE USERNAME HAS BEEN BLOCKED.. I wonder why there are lots of person who wants to scammed people who doesn't know a thing. The problem also is that we cannot report them to any legal matters because it is online, for they can use any names and hide their identity.
• Philippines
25 May 10
I think you can report them. There is a agency or some sort in the Uk/US that combats these illegal and fraudulent individuals. You can try and look it up. I found it once when I was trying to start an online shop before for MMO stuff..
• Philippines
26 May 10
it is not easy anymore to trust anyone in the net. We must always be careful in all actions in the internet for there are many scammers. If you want to process documents, better go to their office.
@BART78 (2927)
• Canada
25 May 10
you did the right thing, i haven't encountered this but your post will surely awaken all of pinoy members here who have desires to work abroad..
• Philippines
25 May 10
Thank you for your response, luckily for you that you haven't encountered in this situation of being scammed. It's not easy to provide a money nowadays just to have a work abroad, then in the end you will be scammed. Where you cannot find that agency anymore because their office is already closed after they receive all the money from all the applicants. Let's just be aware and ask for more details and proofs in that agency.
• Philippines
26 May 10
there are hundreds or probably millions of scammers out there looking for victims to asked for money. i once received an email regarding some lotteries that i won. that he then gave me the couriers address and name to verify my package. i did a research on the company and found it a scam. i emailed him back and told him what i learned and some nasty words to include... be careful with these people, they are all over
• Philippines
25 May 10
waaaah that is really scary...tsk tsk i guess we have to know more about the agency were dealing with...because getting scammed nowadays are due to insufficient knowledge and there is a little line of chance that you will be able to get your money back coz chances are, you cant contact the scammer anymore! so lets be careful with our transactions now adays!
• Philippines
25 May 10
Yeah your right, all we have to do is make a survey and searching online for that agency just to be sure it really does exist.