Allergyboy

PBM: Si Sam Milby ba si Big Brother?

Me: Uuuhhh… oo…

I was watching "Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition" the other night when my mom (who, from this day forth, shall be known as Pinoy Big Mother) asks me, "eto ba yung mga sinasabi nilang houseMAIDs ni Big Brother?"

WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

We’ve all heard of scams. We’ve heard of numerous stories about a friend of a cousin’s co-worker’s ex-boyfriend’s plumber who was duped by a girl scout selling cookies. Most of the time, we hear these stories and then tell ourselves "Oh well, that was so obvious. I’m never gonna be stupid enough to fall for any of that…" But today, my dear friends, I now believe otherwise. For today, I ALMOST fell victim to one such scam. ALMOST. Thank God. Here is my story:

I was to go to Megamall to meet my friends Donna and Nic. I had arrived a bit earlier so I simply spent the waiting time roaming around this gargantuan mall. I had only been walking a few minutes when I came across this promo booth populated with people giving out flyers. This is where my tale truly begins. The booth didn’t look anything suspicious. It was just a regular booth. You see them in malls ALL THE TIME. Usually, I just take the flyers and go about my way, but this person, a friendly, perky woman who cracked corny jokes quickly asked me if I had a credit card. To which I replied, "Yes". And then she proceeded to congratulate me. At this point I simply laughed at her. Why on earth would you congratulate someone for having a credit card. I wasn’t even the card’s principal owner. It was just an extension. But apparently, because of my credit card extension ownership, I would get a free movie pass to any of the Megamall cinemas (which she handed to me immediately) and was eligible to join their raffle for the chance to win a brand new car to be given away by their company, First Family, Inc. (they purport to be a pre-need firm). She asked me if I wanted to fill up the raffle coupon, and I said yes. What the heck. I had to kill time and what could I lose by filling up a "raffle" ticket. So I’m writing my name down while this woman is unbelievably chatty and begins to explain the contest regulations to me. You certify that you’re over 21 blah blah blah… and all that crap. And then she tells me that, aside from the raffle, I can actually win a brand new car today. All I had to do was scratch a card to see if I was the lucky winner. Very simple. Ok. I’ll scratch a card. Heck, I’d scratch a dog with fleas for a brand new car. She then proceeds to tell me that in exchange for a scratch card, I simply had to listen to a short presentation from their company. She asked me if I would agree to do that, and since I was killing some time, I said yes. And then, here’s where things get suspicious for me. When she told me about the presentation, I simply thought that I was going to listen to it right there in the actual booth (it was fairly large and roomy). But apparently, I was to come up to their office and listen to it there. An alarm started to go off in my head. I suddenly imagined that she was going to bring me to a room where there would be a large man with a gun and rob me of all my belongings, including my underwear. And yet what do I do? I agree to go with her. IDIOT! (I am kicking myself as I type this down) Now, I’m not exactly sure why I followed. I just thought that maybe I was overeacting about getting held up. I mean, we were in a large, crowded and legitimate mall establishment. I was most likely safe. Also, I was thinking, that I would look stupid if I all of a sudden just say that I don’t want to win a car and then just run away from her. So I followed. And then I just thought to give my friend Donna a call to say that I was just going to join this mall raffle promo, in case they were on their way (thankfully, they were). And then I was just going to text here exactly where I was once I got to First Family, Inc.’s office just so she would know where I was. You know? In case I was just about to DIE! So there I was following this girl and she’s still very, very chatty. She started giving me suspiciously detailed stories about her life. She’s been working there for two years… she was born and raised in Boracay… she met Assunta de Rossi the other day and even showed me a picture of her on her cell phone… all randomly detailed stuff. And there I was getting more suspicious because I’ve always believed that liars gave copious amounts of details. They do. Because detailed stories tend to sound true. So there was the alarm inside my head going on again. But I figured, "ok, I still see people… I’m not in a dark secluded corner… I don’t see a large man with a gun… I’m just overeacting…" And then we finally get to their office. You can see the inside from outside through the large glass windows. Whew! I was relieved to see that there were many people inside who I assumed to be the other raffle participants. Ok, I can relax. No large man with gun. Great. So I am asked to wait. I fill up a survey and pick out my scratch card, which I was told that I would scratch after the presentation. So miss promo girl keeps chatting me up and tells me about how she’s so pressured with her job, and how her legs hurt because she’s been walking around all day and how her heels are so high… whatever… And the I proceeded to text Donna where I was exactly: "Hi, Donna! I’m here at the 5th level ,Bldg A at the First Family, Inc. office." Donna immediately replied: "SCAM YAN!" Apparently, she had read about the exact same company in the paper. They will inform you that you’ve won, ask you to pay some kind of processing fee and never give you the prize. SCAM YAN! But of course it was! I knew in my head that it was! The alarms had gone off ages ago! And yet, stupidly, I was there in that room waiting for "the chance to win a brand new car." What on earth was I thinking?!?! Filling up this form… going up to their office… listening to this girl talk my ears off… Howmygazh! So I immediately made up this excuse that my friend was already waiting for me downstairs and that I was just going to go back up and bring her with me. And then the promo girl tries to convince me to just stay because I was already next in line and to just tell my friend to come up. She was desperate. She knew that I was onto her and I was not coming back. I turned around, completely ignoring her pleas for me to stay and quickly made my way towards the mall’s exit. I asked the lady guard if she knew about First Family, Inc. and whether they were scammers. She said she didn’t know, but she does hear about a lot of people reporting that they’ve been duped. At that point I was completely boggled as to why Megamall still allows them to continue doing business there. Soon after, Nic and Donna had arrived. I immediately thanked them for informing me, and therefore, saving me from getting duped. I though to myself that it would have been a completely different story if Donna hadn’t replied immediately. But she did. Thank goodness.

So that is my story. It was, indeed, quite the rude awakening. I console myself with the fact that these scammers are really talented and that anybody can be fooled. And I’m sure as hell never accepting any of those flyers again. EVER.