Team DailyPedia
“Dugo-dugo” is a modus which targets house helpers and children where the perpetrators call the victim and pretend to be the household head or the parents who supposedly get involved in an accident, and then would demand for money immediately to “save” them.
Recently, another family almost became victim to this modus. Mica Foronda shared through a Facebook post how their house helper almost gave their money to the culprits. It started when she discovered her mother’s cabinet was slightly opened. That’s when they started to become suspicious and checked if their money was still intact. Although their helper denied her involvement at first, she finally confessed and return the money as she narrated how a woman who pretended to be Mica’s mother pressured her to send money through SMART Padala.
“She said she was not the kind of person who would do such a thing. When I asked her to narrate what happened, she told me that somebody called our telephone number saying my mom had been involved in a car accident and was in the hospital. My “mom” allegedly talked to our maid, but in a different voice, and handed the phone on to another woman because my “mom” was in pain. The person told our maid that she will just call our maid’s mobile number so that my sister and I won’t be suspicious. The woman “read” a letter with my “mom”‘s instructions on it, telling the maid NOT to inform us, her children, that our “mom” had been in an accident because we might panic. The person on the phone told her to FORCE OPEN the cabinet so she could get the money, then ride a tricycle to the SMART Padala branch near the palengke to have the money delivered. The woman on the phone also told our maid that she will give her the SMART Padala number when she reaches the branch. She insisted that if our maid does not give the money, our “mom” will be sent to prison for injuring someone else. After our maid explained all of this to us, she returned the money.”
Mica, then borrowed their helper’s phone and pretended to be someone else in order to speak with the culprit.
“I took our maid’s phone as the culprit called her incessantly. The culprit then called our telephone which I answered. I pretended to be a kasambahay named Jane. She asked for my dad, but I said he wasn’t there. She sounded well-educated, but was a bit rude. The telephone rang again, now asking for our maid, but I said she wasn’t there and kept my Jane persona. The voice of the caller sounded very different from the first.”
Mica told her father of the incident and they went to a SMART Padala branch to deposit one peso to get some information about the culprit, however, the SMART Padala outlet was not able to disclose any information.
In the end, Mica just filed a complaint with their Barangay and had the incident noted down in the blotter.
On a final note, Mica warned the public to be vigilant. The Philippine National Police (PNP) also suggests to use a password in order to verify if the caller is a scammer or not.
