Post your experience with scams being run against expats and others

Jackson4 wrote:

manwonder wrote:

How about the Immigration "Arrival Card"....does it still state Maximum cash carry into the philippines as *10,000pesos or 10,000 usd?

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It still is USD 10k per passenger in foreign currency. If you are carrying Philippine currency, the limit is PHP 50k.
I am not sure if a couple travelling together can carry USD 20k. I could not find this info from the Philippine government websites.
If you have that much cash on your person in the Philippines, you are taking a big risk, I think.

Thanks Jackson4;
Why I asked!
It was a vague fact sometime back in 2012/3 (It was 'claimed' to be only 10t piso).
It was when I was about to depart fm Clark Airbase...I was then carrying abt 30t piso in my pocket on my return flight to Singapore...I was stopped by YES the immigration and pulled to a corner where another 'Senior Officer' appeared and said he could not let me carry such a large amount of cash out of his country &  insisted I give him 3t piso so as to let me pass. After my 15min plea & my flight departure time getting ever closer I gave in!
But ever since the current President Duterte came to power many of these "things in your face" have been reduced significantly so I'd give him credit where credit's due!

I do agree with you that some things had improved since President Duterte was elected. There is still a lot to improve. Corruption is endemic in government.
Last year I visited and was with someone local buying a property. He had to hire a facilitator to manage/negotiate the amount of tax to pay BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) before the title can be transferred. I want to say something but......

Jackson4 wrote:

I do agree with you that some things had improved since President Duterte was elected. There is still a lot to improve. Corruption is endemic in government.
Last year I visited and was with someone local buying a property. He had to hire a facilitator to manage/negotiate the amount of tax to pay BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) before the title can be transferred. I want to say something but......

"BIR"...lets not go there please!

Jackson4 wrote:

I do agree with you that some things had improved since President Duterte was elected. There is still a lot to improve. Corruption is endemic in government.
Last year I visited and was with someone local buying a property. He had to hire a facilitator to manage/negotiate the amount of tax to pay BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) before the title can be transferred. I want to say something but......

Expats commenting on local or national politics is a no win situation, can only create problems.

Jackson4 wrote:

manwonder wrote:

How about the Immigration "Arrival Card"....does it still state Maximum cash carry into the philippines as *10,000pesos or 10,000 usd?

.
It still is USD 10k per passenger in foreign currency. If you are carrying Philippine currency, the limit is PHP 50k.
I am not sure if a couple travelling together can carry USD 20k. I could not find this info from the Philippine government websites.
If you have that much cash on your person in the Philippines, you are taking a big risk, I think.

It is 10k USD per person. Since a couple is two people, they can carry 10K USD each.

https://www.philippine-embassy.org.sg/t … ilippines/

A  person may carry up to the amount of USD 10,000 (or equivalent in any other foreign currency), in cash or other monetary instruments, into and out of the Philippines...If a person wishes to bring more that the equivalent of USD 10,000, a written declaration must be made in the form of the BSP’s “Foreign Currency and Other FX-Denominated Bearer Monetary Instruments Declaration Form”

Sometimes people may find it necessary to carry that much cash. Just make sure it is under the threshold for declaration and it is ok to conceal it. Conceal it well because if any eyes see it then suddenly there will be many reasons to isolate you and drum up charges. You are under no obligation to reveal that you are carrying cash in amounts under the 10k USD limit. But as you may know, laws get made up on the fly when cash is involved.

I believe the $10k USD is a global thing. I dont know how many pesos you can bring in, but I do know you can only carry 10K pesos out of the Philippines..

Munchie wrote:

I believe the $10k USD is a global thing. I dont know how many pesos you can bring in, but I do know you can only carry 10K pesos out of the Philippines..

Thanks Munchie

Munchie wrote:

I believe the $10k USD is a global thing. I dont know how many pesos you can bring in, but I do know you can only carry 10K pesos out of the Philippines..

PHP increased
https://www.philippine-embassy.org.sg/t … ilippines/

The increase to PHP 50,000 in the allowable amount of Philippine currency brought in or out of the Philippines took effect on 15 September 2016, per Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Circular No. 922, series of 2016, dated 23 August 2016, titled “The Amendments of the Rules on Cross-Border Transfer of Local Currency”.

Thanks PD....at least now its official!

Just recently was mailed by an expat guy calling himself David Philip and wanted to buy my car advertised in this forum here for sale. He appeared genuine and we exchanged mails about car condition and payment by PayPal.
I opened an account for PayPal and we moved to close the deal with him sending the money to PayPal and a notice mail appearing in my email address for the PAYMENT RECEIVED.
service@intl.paypal.com <pay_pal-finances@secureroot.com
BUT this mail was not from actual PayPal and David wanted me to send some smaller money via "Money Gram" to a guy called Pankaen Chavez in Kiev Ukraine  purpose to allow his payment to be released into my PayPal account.         
When no money was appearing into my account as "pending" or some such title I realized that  I was being scammed. The mail supposedly from PayPal was quite genuinely looking and Davids words of encouragement quite reasonable considering he was buying my car at 600,000 pesos.

Perhaps us expats should expect proof of id and address before being accepted as members?

Having my life threatened by extorting corrupt cops was the worst.

Some foreign scammers move to Phils I suppouse much less risk to het caught in Phils than in their home countries, and continue scamming in Phils e g a Norwegian, one from UK and one not sure if American or Australian.
(And there are other foreign biger criminals who run to Phils to avoid the law e g
/an American in the FBI list among most wanted according to his annoyed Filipina wife,
/an American pedophile wanted in USA, moved to Phils, continued similar and posted it at Facebook telling how "clever" he had been including telling where in Phils he was,, so he got caught and send to USA   
/a Swedish criminal within drugs (but he is dead now).

Even if get caught in Phils for scam it's possible to BUY staying out of jail, NOT meaning by bribe the  justice system, but by paying the wictims, who was filed a case, if they take it back. (As e g in a mango investment case, but not sure if that was a scam or incompetence not thinking of what happen after year six with who cover the costs so it became imposible for the organicer to fullfil the deal.)

. .
KAPA runed by a religiouss organisattion from Mindanao was an OBVIOUS scam for me when I saw what they "guaranteed", but many got fooled by it anyway even a year AFTER SEC (=organisation and corporation regitrration) warned about them!  Finaly around 9 month ago the masses understood it was a scam...

The leaders tried to claim it wasn't scam by calling itt "donations" - afterwards.   Donations to the leaders' luxury life eeh?   

It's common with such imposible for to high "guarantee" investment offers in Phils,
and some MLM counled as illegal in "western" countries are legal in Phils.

Peter Clark wrote:

Just recently was mailed by an expat guy calling himself David Philip and wanted to buy my car advertised in this forum here for sale. He appeared genuine and we exchanged mails about car condition and payment by PayPal.
I opened an account for PayPal and we moved to close the deal with him sending the money to PayPal and a notice mail appearing in my email address for the PAYMENT RECEIVED.
service@intl.paypal.com <pay_pal-finances@secureroot.com
BUT this mail was not from actual PayPal and David wanted me to send some smaller money via "Money Gram" to a guy called Pankaen Chavez in Kiev Ukraine  purpose to allow his payment to be released into my PayPal account.         
When no money was appearing into my account as "pending" or some such title I realized that  I was being scammed. The mail supposedly from PayPal was quite genuinely looking and Davids words of encouragement quite reasonable considering he was buying my car at 600,000 pesos.

Perhaps us expats should expect proof of id and address before being accepted as members?

Actual Paypal has on-line help if needed & they reply quite promptly ....I had my own surprise with my used car sale in Singapore some 6yrs ago & some guy offered me a great deal too....said he was fm New Zealand & wanted to buy my car & was in the process of getting someone to come & see me...I felt a little funny as to why someone fm New Zealand wanted to import a used 7yr old fiat croma (had lots of problems with that one) & so I approached paypal for assistance/fwd his email/details & after seeing it they infact replied that it was indeed a scam & asked me to ignore his future messages & I suspect they followed up with him directly....that was it for me.
*so its not only in the philippines that they operate.
*If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.