I Almost Got Scammed!

By: Framelia De Guzman Viernes

I came across on FB of this sale ad bearing The Marketplace logo. Ang eggs na 30s at usually P300+ ay P88 lang! I checked all the sale items, wow, lahat P88. So kahit meron pa kaming supply, in-add to cart ko din lahat! I also checked the other items not on sale, and ordered some (syempre, tinatamad mag-grocery–mabigat magbitbit

Aba, meron pang iti-tick on how much tip you’re giving the rider! And the order daw will be delivered by Grab via Grabmart for free, basta more than P500 ang order mo. So I checked my Grab balance, OK pa naman to cover my total items.

So nagproceed na to payment. There I noticed na credit at debit card lang ang pwede. Walang GCash, COD, or even Grabpay? Nagtaka ako bakit hindi sa Grabpay naniningil, eh, dba Grabmart sabi nya? I don’t transact my CC online except my trusted sites (UPOU, airlines, legit hotels, and AirBnB lang). I checked the URL, meron namang padlock icon. But as my normal SOP in online transactions, I checked with Google using simple keywords: “The Marketplace” “scam.”

At ayun… lumabas ang post ng tunay na TheMarketplace announcing that they are not affiliated with Marketplace PH Shop. I checked the details of the page which I am transacting with, and there… I saw it on the email provided. Then I read the comments. May mga na-scam, almost got scammed, provided their credit card details then the page was no longer accessible, etc etc.

Kaya pala CC lang ang mode of payment. And, of course, the bait of P88 per item was too good to be true! Kaya ang total ko was only P741, including the tip

Kaya, mga friends, let’s all be vigilant. Ang daming scams, all shapes and sizes, ‘ika nga. Pati mga tao, madaming scammers, telling you something but either it’s half-truth or not true at all! Pag paiba-iba, like Grabmart daw pero credit card naman ang MoP, naku, hindi consistent! There’s something wrong. Let’s all be careful 🙂