A Scammer Among Us

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Last Saturday after training, two groups from our class went out for drinks. I didn’t stay too long and had somewhere else to go so I didn’t find out about this “crime” until Monday night.

Apparently, the other group with us at the resto/bar was there to celebrate an alleged birthday of a certain “John.” He promised to cover the bill, which by the end of the rounds had amounted to over PhP5000.  He said he had no money on him and would need to go meet his dad at a nearby hotel.  He asked one of their batchmates to accompany him to get some money.  At the hotel cafe/resto, he and the one guy ordered food because he said he was still hungry. They ran a bill of over a thousand pesos.  He asked to be excused to go up to his dad’s room and get the money.  An hour later and he still wasn’t back.

He couldn’t be reached.

The group he left at the bar, and the guy he left at the hotel resto kept trying to call him. He was not picking up, or he was out of reach by mobile.

The group ended up pitching in to pay for their bill. They also had to go rescue the poor guy at the hotel resto because he did not have enough cash.

On Monday night, he didn’t show up for class.

They Googled the guy, using his name as keywords, and guess what we found out? He’s been going around call centers and he’s left a trail of scams here and there. So add us to the list of sites he hit. Tsk. The good thing is that he didn’t really get any money from any of us. Yes, so some of us had to dish out a big amount for food and booze they thought was free, but no real harm done.

John Benedic La Chica. That’s the name he uses.

He stays at call centers for only a few weeks, just during the training period. He uses that wonderful time to befriend people, gain their trust, and then trick them of their hard earned money.

Last night, we found out that he managed to get 400 pesos from the lady who runs the Jolly Jeep right outside our building. Tsk. Now that’s really low.

Call center recruitment offices should be more strict about pre-employment requirements and background checks with previous employers. This guy should be blacklisted!

Here’s a link to a forum post about this scammer: http://www.tipidpc.com/viewtopic.php?tid=189533