coming...
victim 5yes, she can afford that amount. but i doubt if anyone can afford to lose it and just say pooh-pooh, that was nothing. in her case, outside of her savings, she raised the money by drawing on her retirement way ahead. it can be done at the agency where she works.
the promise: a job placement for her daughter in new york. there were some obscure details added, like what kind of job she'd have or where she could stay, but it meant negotiating in dollars, mind. what made it more believable, for her anyway, was that the terms included a return of 50% of what she'd paid in case she backed out.
the usual modus ensued. there's a hitch in the paperwork, more payment was needed, and so on and on and sickeningly on. she managed to keep on by assuring herself each time that perhaps, this could be it, finally, and she remitted the required additional payment once again. it struck me as no different from an addiction to gambling, the kind when a gambler gets a high thinking of the returns if he staked his money some more.
that went on for months. when she realized that her total payments had become staggering and still nothing had happened, she chose to back out and asked for the promised return of 50% of her total payments.
it was at this point that she told me her story, including the time when she went to the u.s. embassy in manila to ask for help and got nothing. she might as well be an alien from outer space asking for directions. she should have known that only divine intervention could help her by then.
you had receipts? none. who were you sending money to, any name and address? oh, she had a name (frankly, it could be anybody's name), and the address is a post office box. (like her, i also despaired at this point.)
how did you get yourself into this thing? the internet. how did you ever begin to believe it? a friend had her daughter placed there this same way. where's this friend now? do you have proof that her daughter is already there? no answer. at least i can have my 50% back...
please, please, don't send even a cent anymore. she did anyway, to the tune of around 40k equivalent in pesos, purportedly for the processing of the 50% recovery of all her payments. just this one more time, it could be real, she said in her usual hopeful attitude. zilch.
may i point out that if anything, this friend happens to be very trusting in fellow human beings, which is a good thing, why not. her weakness was in sticking her neck out for her daughter, who is of major age, to probably make real her own unfulfilled dreams.
believe in your dreams, but don't pass them on for others to fulfill and live by, not even to your own children.Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=54538.0