Senior Citizen Tricked by a Fake Aid Giver in Bacolod
BACOLOD CITY – An 84-year-old man from Purok Kahirup, Barangay Singcang Airport, was allegedly tricked and robbed by a man who pretended to be part of a group distributing rice assistance to families affected by a recent storm.
The senior citizen, Salvador Perete, shared that the man approached them after noticing that the typhoon had badly damaged their house. He asked whether they had already received rice aid, and Salvador replied that they had not yet received any assistance.
The man then pretended to make a phone call and told them that his group was already on the way to deliver rice to the Perete family. He asked Salvador’s child to save his phone number.
However, when the child tried to do so, the number could not be clearly understood, so the phone was handed to the man so he could type and save the number himself. While he was pretending to type, he instructed the child to go inside the house to get a plastic bag. When the child returned, the man was already gone, along with the Oppo Reno mobile phone.
The child also revealed that before leaving, the man asked for five hundred pesos, claiming he would exchange it for one thousand pesos as part of the supposed cash assistance. Since the child only had one hundred fifty pesos in coins, that was what was given to him, in the hope that they would still receive the promised one thousand pesos once the rest of the group arrived. Unfortunately, this turned out to be part of the deception.
Later, the family reported the incident to Police Station 8. However, they claimed they were only asked if they really wanted to file a blotter report, which made them feel discouraged and uncertain about whether any further action would be taken.