TEACHERS BEWARE!
Loan scam reaches Guimaras
Three months after the successful execution of a well-designed con loan in the Province of Antique, swindlers under the 'Visayas Educators' League Incorporated' are at it again. The latest victims— government teachers from the Province of Guimaras.
The modus operandi is the same with minor changes in the name of the woman posing as the league representative. From the name Victoria Cabais supposedly of Makati City and Myrna Sanchez of Pasig City, the unsuspecting Guimaras applicants this time met one Cassandra de la Peña. All identities are believed to be fictitious.
In a report, The News Today gathered that De la Peña visited the Buenavista Central School in Buenavista, Guimaras Thursday last week. There she showed credentials of being an agent from the Visayas Educators' League Incorporated and offered a quick salary loan. With the most basic and minimum in requirements such as pay slip, service records and official identification cards, some thirty to forty elementary public school teachers readily agreed on the terms set for the loan.
Total amount offered was P30,000, with the loan released in two checks at P15,000. For one to be approved, the applicant agrees to pay P9,000 to the League, deductible to the checks issued also by the company.
And just like in Antique, the loan approvals came Friday afternoon and Saturday with the checks also coming from a local bank. The teacher-beneficiaries had the checks encashed in a store here in Iloilo City where they are known to be regular clients. First batch of the checks issued were accepted by the store that had them give P9,000 for each approved loan to de la Peña.
Yet the scam was discovered when the owner of another store recalled having the same check from months back that came back 'closed account.' Verification did validate the concern with the checks also declared to be 'lost checks.'
Sources said an estimated 60 checks are still out to be distributed however word came out about the scam that now had the teacher-beneficiaries reconsider.
Dela Pena remains out of reach since then.
The Antique scam victimized twenty teachers but the bigger victim was the owner of one grocery store who usually caters to teachers' checks. For a considerable purchase, the store would give out the rest of the amount in cash that enabled the swindlers to con their way in not only to the teachers but to yet another victim.
The women 'agents' are tagalog-speaking and described to be 'very professional-looking.'