BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Some residents in the neighboring city of Talisay have filed a complaint before the National Bureau of Investigation against a group of individuals who they claimed conned them in an “investment scam,” that could possibly reach up to more than P100 million.
“It’s a scam,” Naiyana Jayme-Maravilla, one of the complainants, told DNX as she recounted how she and numerous others had fallen victim to an apparent pyramiding scam, with one series of transactions alone amounting to P6 million.
DNX is withholding the names of the alleged “scammers” pending the formal filing of information.
Maravilla said three of them are women.
Maravilla said she herself invested P20,000 of her personal money in the scheme, with an assurance that she would recoup her capital investment by October of this year.
October came and went, but the money did not come.
“I trusted them, although I did have my reservations from the start, but some of my trusted friends invested in them, so I also trusted them,” she said.
The scheme, as it turned out, is “too good to be true”.
Maravilla revealed that as of the last count, the number of victims who had fallen to the scam had reached 43 people, with more than P50 million in money involved.
The victims come from Talisay and Bago City, and most are teachers. The “scammers” allegedly had a victim working overseas.
“This is because some of their recruits, recruited others in turn, so although one is based in Talisay, some of those victimized came all the way from Bago,” Maravilla said.
Others invested their hard-earned money supposedly allocated for medical purposes.
One victim invested P600,000 of her money that was supposedly allocated for her kid’s heart surgery.
