Pang said that Mika convinced him to join the business venture by telling him that she was processing her own orders and making good money. She also showed Pang a report of her profits.
Mika instructed Pang to transfer the money into her bank account, which she would use to register and set up his e-commerce and cryptocurrency account.
He said that the platform gives resellers an online shop along with the products to sell, which he needed to fund first. Once a customer buys an item from the store and the sale is confirmed, he will get a 10 per cent commission and a refund of his capital.
Pang, however, said that he was unable to withdraw his money as long as there was an outstanding order that he had not fulfilled. But orders racked up quickly, leaving him unable to take his money out of the account. Pang quickly became suspicious of this.
“I believe that these customers that were coming in were all fake, generated by this company to prevent me from withdrawing my money,” he said.
After realising this on the second or third day, Pang said that he removed all the products from the store, so that no new purchases could be made.
However, there were still new purchases coming in.
He said that he believes that the website administrators gained control of his account and reloaded the products he had previously removed. With that, Pang was stuck and unable to retrieve the money he had invested into the business, which was “over $27,000 in cryptocurrency”.
“We call that scam a romance or love scam,” said the Public Information Officer of Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNPACG), Wallen Mae Arancillo, who was on the phone with Tulfo during the episode. “The usual way of the modus operandi is that these scammers get the sympathy of their victims, who later encourage their victims to invest in cryptocurrency.”
Tulfo also said that Mika could be part of a bigger scamming operation.
“The PNPACG is really doing our best with regards to cyber patrolling and online investigations so that we will be able to trace these people behind these scam hubs,” said Arancillo.
Tulfo’s team and the Philippine police are now assisting Pang in the investigation.