LISTEN | Scammer Tries to Extort Money by Making Death Threats
Image Caption: Screen facsimile of the voice recording of an apparent prank call save online.
By: Tricia Aquino, InterAksyon
MANILA – Real estate agent Nicole Caluza received a call at 8:15 p.m. on Wednesday, and having recorded it, decided to upload the saved audio to warn others of the new criminal tactic, which has apparently surfaced following the spate of extrajudicial and vigilante-style killings related to President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
A man introducing himself as Alex Guererro, using mobile number 0995-544-5957, told her that someone had contracted him to kill her. He said he had accepted the contract, and has dispatched three hitmen and one hitwoman from Mindanao to Luzon to carry out the contract.
But, the person who allegedly ordered the hit was supposed to have called Guererro again, ordering that his group kill Caluza’s entire family, as well.
“Conscience-stricken”, Guererro decided to contact her and asked for her cooperation (“makipagtulungan“). He told her that he had a cell phone video of the person who ordered the hit, which he could give her so she could present it as evidence to the authorities. But, there was a catch: A small fee.
The money would be spent, he said, to cover his assassins’ journey back to Mindanao.
Listen to the audio recording below.
Caluza told InterAksyon: “I had a choice to make: Do I put the phone down? Do I keep talking to this person? Should I be rude? Should I just play it subtle? But I realized very quickly that it was a scam, and I remembered that the call was being auto-recorded by my phone,” she recounted.
She had earlier been fiddling with her phone’s settings and it began to record calls automatically.
She decided to let Guererro talk more, in the hope that it would help trace him.
Since then, she has filed a complaint and submitted the recording to the National Telecommunications Commission, and is awaiting a reply to her complaint.
She also called 911, and was told that the most they could do was advise her to change her SIM, block Guererro’s number, and have the incident recorded in a blotter.
She did so, and was told that nothing would have happened to her even if she put the phone down. Although she saw the official’s point, she believed she could do better than that, given her recording.
“The result was less than impressive and I don’t think I’ll get any results there. It seemed like there was no coordination between the police and other (agencies),” Caluza said. “As soon as he heard it was a prank call, that was it.”
She had hoped that someone from the government could have pointed her in the right direction.
It was the people online, who commented on her Facebook post about the incident, who were more helpful. She planned to meet with the Cyber Crimes Division of the National Bureau of Investigation soon.
Upon learning about what happened to her mother, Caluza’s daughter cried and told her, “Mom, if this was me, I would have been so helpless.”
“I think we’re responsible for the kind of environment we have,” Caluza reflected. “It’s important that we take action, we do what we can to help ourselves, the government, and try to be informed. Also, do your research and reach out to the right people. And with technology … make use of it.”
Caluza said it’s obvious that the anti-drug campaign and slew of extrajudicial killings were being exploited by bad elements of society, which was why she is urging the public to be vigilant.
“Let’s do our part,” she said.
For her, sharing her story is one way of doing so.
(Source: InterAksyon.com)