You may have noticed news stories lately, involving a company called FrancSwiss, and a whole bunch of angry investors. FrancSwiss allegedly recruited investors with a promise. For every $1,000 you’d invest, FrancSwiss would pay you interest, calculated daily, mind you, of 4.5 percent. That’s $45 a day.
The promise of a return on investment no bank could match, and which required neither research nor a sense of timing like the stock market needs, was too good to ignore. It also helped that FrancSwiss apparently did a lot of name-dropping. But the allegations are, that FranSwiss is a scam.
But it isn’t the first of its kind, here. In 1999, after a yearlong manhunt, Josephine “Bunny” Herman, wife of President Joseph Estrada’s close friend and former press relations officer, Reli German was arrested on a charge of defrauding business associates of about one billion pesos in a pyramid scam. Almost every year, stories make it to the headlines. The stories involve fantastic amounts of money, made from equally fantastic promises to people, that they can get rich quick.
Let me tell you about a scam. The details come from a reader of my column, who wants to remain anonymous.
The scam started with a text to the Globe phone of the reader’s spouse on April 18, 2007. Here’s the text message: “Congrtlations!!! You have, won 300th/w Toyota Hilux Lst.Feb5 2007. ur cell # as Home Partner. Call ds # 4details, ds is Jessa Soriano, of Philippine comm,center..”
Curious about the message, the reader rang Jessa Soriano (0927 5528 258). This happened:
“She told me to call Andy Sy (0910 7300 380) who will verify my identity — to make sure I am really the winner. I tried phoning Mr. Sy, couldn’t get through and after several tries, gave up.”
That should have been the end of it, right? But making it difficult to get through seems to have been a cunning plan.
“The following morning Jessa rang to ask if I had been able to speak to Mr. Sy. I asked her what’s going on? Why does she give me a number that is not answered? I even said, ‘what foolishness is this’? Jessa wasn’t ruffled and only said she would ‘help’ and will contact Mr. Sy for me. Finally I was able to talk to Mr. Sy, who started by sounding surprised that I was only told about my winning in April when I had won in February. He said, ‘this Philippine Communications Center is too much’ thus establishing his connection with a government agency by faulting it. In the same breath, he said he would ‘help’ me by explaining the situation to his boss and ask for an ‘exception’ in my case because obviously the grace period during which to claim my prize had already expired. But not to worry.”
Concern and sympathy having been established, the bait was dangled. Let’s continue.
“When I said fine, when do I get my car? He insisted on my listening to his spiel. That he is with SPARCO, a company that imports automotive spare parts into the Philippines. He ‘legitimized’ the basis of his company’s raffle by saying that their board had decided on a raffle as a means of alleviating the tax burden on the spare parts that his company imports.” Incidentally, SPARCO’s a real company, and its line of business is indeed, importing spare parts for cars. Anyone enterprising enough to check the scam, up to this point, would seem to find their worries reassured. So let’s continue with the reader’s description of the scam:
“He went on to say that the car that I had won was in Cebu. Did I wish to pick it up myself or have it delivered to my house? When I said delivered to me, he said that I shouldn’t worry about the freight cost or even the hotel stay of the four people who would deliver the car from Cebu. SPARCO will pay for everything. All I had to do was send him copies of 2 ID’s. And oh yes, now that the car is mine, I would naturally want to register it in my name. Before I can register the car, I of course would need to get some car insurance. When I asked how much, he said, P25,000. When I told him I wouldn’t pay that amount for insurance he straight away said that he would ask his secretary to apply for a basic insurance. Cost P7,200, including registration. I should send the money via Western Union to his secretary (sorry, didn’t list down her name) c/o SPARCO International, 2898 Lopez Building, Sergio Osmena Blvd, Cebu City 6000.”
So you see, the bait was a car, and the point of the scam was not even delivery fees, but car registration fees! Think of 7,200 pesos multiplied endlessly: if the scammers found just 10 gullible people a week, that 72,000 pesos in scam money!
It gets even more interesting when the reader decided to spring a little trap.
“I texted him back to say that I won’t be sending the cash via Western Union but would ask my friend in Cebu to give him the cash. Please tell me where my friend can meet him. At this point, he texted back using another number — 0971 5495 700 — saying that he’s asked his vice president who said I have forfeited my prize because I wouldn’t follow company policy.”
Sensing the reader was on to them, this is how it ended:
“At the end he sent me a txt saying, ‘Unfortunately... I decided to 4feiture of ur prizes! Due to negligence of your part. Publication will din follow. Better luck nxtym.’”
The reader then offered up this reflection:
“Truth to tell there were moments during the episode (over two days) that I was almost convinced that I had really won. The scam was well thought out even including the fact that ‘Mr. Sy’ was not available the first few times I tried to reach him. To keep me in suspense and anxious that I might lose my prize. The masterminds also chose the right people to run the scam. Jessa sounded helpful and Mr. Sy authoritative.”
In 2003, the Associated Press reported that losses from pyramid schemes possibly exceeded our annual defense budget. That year marked a major problem, coincidentally, in the armed forces and police, with soldiers and cops demoralized because they lost their savings in pyramid scams.
The latest rash of stories reminds us neither education, nor prominence, neither fame nor obscurity, makes people immune to being victimized by such scams. All the headlines today, are simply the latest manifestation in a long-standing problem.
Let’s give credit to the institutions that seem to be doing something about it. The Bangko Sentral, the Securities and Exchange Commission. And to individuals doing their little bit, to help fight fraud. Such as the reader who shared her story, and our guest who is trying to educate the public. And let’s all admit, something that’s not very cheerful, but all too true: there is no such thing as a quick buck.
