Court denies TRO vs. oil

This serves as a fair warning to all, especially the moneyed OFW families in Bohol, who are now the target of various forms of scams.

The Con-Men are particularly conscienceless - sucking the blood like vampires of OFWs who left home and hearth to earn dollars for their families. Their hard-earned moolah toiled for by them for many years - go down the drain.

A series of Housing Scams had victimized thousands of OFW families. This usually happens during the "pre-selling stage" where potential victims are lured to part with their money through glitzy promotional materials and videos about how splendid the subdivision or condominium will be upon completion. They even set up an attractive arc at the entrance of those projects with two impressive road networks.

But that's about what the scam bugs are prepared to invest in.

After parting with his down payment, the subdivision and condominium projects go unfinished -with the OFW families holding the proverbial empty bag.

But it appears now that the cases of estafa and fraud cannot prosper in court because settlements of these issues apparently rests on the HLURB (Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board) under Romulo Fabul.

And the best the latter can do is to convince the bankrupt property developers to reimburse the advances - and they do not have much convincing power on construction firms they had issued permits to operate - in the first place. You need not wonder why.

The Department of Justice is set to request the president for a special Executive Order to limit the power of HLURD on these matters. That has to be done soonest.

Meantime, the National Bureau of investigation (NBI) has arrested people connected with the Internet-based racket of networking called "Franzswiss" that deceived Filipinos of about P 1-Billion in so-called investments.

Hybrids of this Networking Scam sweet talk people out of their pocket's contents by promising guaranteed profits which depends on their ability to solicit other investors into the scam. Usually the goods and services promised out of the investment is never worth the price they are advertised by the Agents of Satan.

The profit for recruiting the "next suckers" is so high (aside from the initial investment) that the hapless victim is lured -but it is not made aware of the universal dictum that "the higher the rewards promised, the higher the risk."

The Government had warned the public often enough - that if the offer is too good to be true - then it is usually too good to be true.

The third scam is the so-called transactions involving Foreign Exchange Trading.

Glib and attractive male and female sales persons will convince moneyed individuals or corporations to invest in various currencies (dollars, euros etc) and the foreign exchange traders will play the market - for the OFW - especially early evening to dawn.

The transactions are too fast and furious that the Investor is too tired to monitor the minute-by-minute price movement of the currencies.

By dawn, in one big swoop, the investment can vanish in thin air because of wrong trading. By 9 a.m. the following day the foreign exchange con-man badgers the investors for more deposits for "margins" - a technical term - in order to hedge more by putting up the "margins" for further currency trading transaction.

Instead of just losing what he invested, the Investor instead loses more from the initial deposit by "adding good money after bad." The unscrupulous agents who get a commission per trade couldn't care where you will get your funds for "margins."

In less than a day, one's millions can evaporate like mushrooms. Anything that has to do with trading of currency is extremely dangerous. Even the experts can get clobbered themselves - what about the poor Juan de la Cruz? It is an activity - not for the faint of heart and shallow pockets - who has to handle day-to-day expenses.

Any offer similar to this should be dealt with extreme caution.

Finally, the BSP (Central Bank) through BSP Deputy Vice Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. gave the public guidelines to avoid being "taken for a ride" by unscrupulous pawnshops and fake ones.

BSP said there are only 2,000 pawnshops with legitimate business papers and must have mayor's permit. Unregistered pawnshops should be reported to the office of Espenilla.

The BSP has been breathing down the necks of notorious pawnshops -considered as "non-banks with quasi banking functions" for violations of interest and service charge limitations per month, lack of disclosure and illegal auctioning of foreclosed assets of clients.

The BSP clarified that 5% per month is the maximum pawnshops can charge to include interest, service and other fees. The latter cannot bill the client for the insurance coverage premium of his collateral in the pawnshop, according to BSP.

Many pawnshops do not give tickets or promissory notes to legally strengthen its transparency and declare the terms and conditions of the agreement. Finally, they auction off so-called collaterals as jewelry, land and even appliances before the regularity period of 90 days after the loan maturity. People should report violators and fake pawnshops to BSP immediately, we call on the citizens.

Many in the rural and even urban areas have been robbed off their shirts and livelihood by Con-Men who are so vile Satan wouldn't allow them to stay in hell because they may con Beelzebub himself. No wonder many of them we still see around.

As always we say, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.