News
Guy Shares Experience after Losing Php26k to Someone Pretending to Be from the Bank
One guy lost Php26k to someone pretending to be from the bank – and he is sharing his experience to warn others not to make the same mistake, especially because he learned from the bank that he will not be refunded because he ‘authorized’ the transaction.
Phishing and Scamming
For so long, banks have sent warnings to customers not to click links that tell them input sensitive information such as birthdays, PINs, and other similar data. Joshua Renaldee Salcedo admitted that he had clicked on such an email from ‘BPI’ but that was in May 2019. He never thought that the action had done some harm and that the scammers had harvested his data and stored it for future use.
Amid the enhanced community quarantine, he received a call from someone pretending to be from BPI Pritil, a BPI branch in Tondo, Manila. He was told that he needed to update his information, including his address and contact number. Then, he was told that he needed to go to the bank to confirm those information after the ECQ period. No red flags there for Salcedo.
The ‘bank representative’ then scheduled him for the first week of May, telling him to recite the code the bank will send him to verify his schedule. Upon receiving the text message, he automatically gave the code to the ‘bank representative’ without really reading the message.
He would realize that if the ECQ is lifted he won’t be able to go to the bank during the first week of May, so the ‘bank representative’ rescheduled his appointment to ‘any day in May’. Again, he was asked for a code – and he recited that to the ‘bank representative’, again without checking the entire message.
About an hour later, he turned on his mobile data and was surprised to receive an email from BPI saying “fund transfer was successful”. It was only then that he realized that the ‘bank representative’ was a scammer and the code he had been sending was an OTP (one-time password)!
What’s worse, when he went to the bank, he was told that though they will be investigating the matter, they can’t refund him because under the bank’s disclaimer, the account owner is liable for transactions with authenticated OTP. It’s a code that shouldn’t be shared with anyone – and did that willingly, though under different circumstances, to the scammer…
What’s an OTP?
An OTP is a one-time password usually used by banks as added security for users. This is valid for one session only and expires after a set time, usually within 5 minutes. The code is sent to the user’s email address or phone and is deemed as an authentic way to validate the session or transaction. So, any transaction completed with the correct OTP is considered as valid and authorized by the account holder.
Lifestyle
Prayer before Meals? Photo of Kneeling Customers of Roadside Carinderia Goes Viral
A photo of kneeling customers at a roadside carinderia goes viral, with many netizens joking that these “religious” buyers are already praying before their meal. LOL
Photo of Roadside Carinderia’s Kneeling Customers Goes Viral
In the Philippines, carinderias are a popular place for finding affordable, budget-friendly meals.
They’re usually small stalls with simple dining sets where people can dine for much less than what you’d normally get billed at a restaurant.
Carinderias themselves can still be considered a restaurant, but they’re a toned down version with much cheaper rates. You can even order “takeout” meals that they’ll usually put inside plastic roll bags instead of a Styrofoam or cardboard box you might expect from a regular restaurant.
And while carinderias aren’t usually the subject of a viral post, one recently gained social media fame after some customers have been photographed kneeling while taking their order.
Now, we forgot to mention that many carinderias have a loyal customer base of people who often go there on a regular basis. Many of them might be workers or students in the area. Other carinderias also have nearby residents as regular customers.
So, it isn’t surprising that when a carinderia was affected by a new road made several feet above the old one, the loyal customers kept coming back to the their favorite food source.
The only difference is that now they have to adjust and kneel down so they can check the food items being offered by the carinderia.
A photo of the said carinderia, credited to Facebook user Casper Correche, was shared on Facebook page “Calbayognon.” In the post, the page identified the carideria to be somewhere in Calbayog, Samar.
The page joked that the three guys seen in the photo were ordering one more serving of adobong manok before ending it with an “Amen.” It’s like they’re already done praying before they get to eat their meal.
How Road Widening Affects People in the Philippines
There are lots of great benefits to road widening:
- Better roads
- Wider roads that can accommodate more cars
- Less traffic
However, road widening can also some negative effects:
- Roadside houses and establishments might be included in the expansion
- Some of these buildings can also become lower than the road level, leading to various issues (and the owners don’t usually get compensation to change their houses so they can be at road level again)
News
Customer Wants Free Portrait, Sends Bible Verse to Make Artist Feel Guilty
A customer wants free portrait – and had the audacity to send a Bible verse to make the artist feel guilty for trying to ask for payment in exchange for the drawing! Whoa.
Customer Wants Free Portrait, Guilt-Trips Artist with Bible Verse
These days, it has become easier for artists to connect with new customers through apps, messaging, and other social media or online tools.
You can even find an artist on Facebook marketplace, TikTok, Instagram, or just about any online platform available.
What’s sad is that these artists also encounter a lot of bogus “miners” or those who request for an artwork to be done, but then vanish without a trace. For example, a customer canceled two paintings created by a deaf-mute artist after he was already trying to deliver the pieces!
Recently, someone reached out to artist Chaboy dela Cruz to ask him to create a portrait.
And while that isn’t something new, the artist had a good sense to ask whether the person he was chatting with had plans to pay for the commissioned art – because they actually didn’t want to pay up!
This person even set the deadline, but was shocked to learn that the artist was asking for payment over the artwork.
Instead of asking how much they’re supposed to pay, this freeloader sent dela Cruz a screenshot of a biblical passage from Hebrews 13:5-8, which says in English, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have (because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake).”
What’s even more hilarious about the customer’s demand is that they didn’t even know the artist personally. You’d think they were friends by how they worded the post. LOL.
How Much Do Drawings And Portraits Cost?
This actually depends on several factors, but mostly the artist’s talent and name. You’d see newbie artists charging as low as Php100 per bond paper-sized portrait, but the same thing could fetch thousands of pesos, maybe even millions if commissioned by a famous artist.
Inspiring
Doctor Goes Viral for Beautiful Penmanship and Writing Instructions in Filipino
A doctor goes viral for beautiful penmanship – and we also love that he writes the instructions in Filipino for his patients to better understand. Isn’t that awesome?
Doctor Goes Viral for Beautiful Penmanship
Yes, doctors are known for having a really bad, barely readable penmanship. There’s even an on-going joke that only pharmacists can understand what they write (which is actually true on many occasions).
Thankfully, many doctors have realized that writing their prescription in incomprehensible handwriting might lead to errors in dispensing the medications.
This can be dangerous, actually, especially because some medications can have lethal effects when given in incorrect doses or to someone with certain underlying medication conditions.
Recently, one doctor went viral for writing prescriptions in calligraphy-like handwriting – and she isn’t the only that impressed netizens with good penmanship.
Dr. Robert Dominic Gonzales amazed netizens when he shared a photo of a prescription that he had written for a patient.
It’s very clear from the prescription that he described this patient with Losartan at 50 mg per tablet.
The prescription is good for 30 tablets, with clear instructions written in Filipino for the patient to drink one tablet per day to control high blood pressure.
Dr. Gonzales captioned the post, “From practicing the alphabet, writing essays, and answering tons of exams… we’ve come to this point of using a pen and paper.”
The impressive handwriting amazed netizens who mused that doctors should learn to write prescriptions in this manner so that it will be clear to the patient, not just to the pharmacist.
He explained that it’s best to write prescriptions in a manner that’s clear for everyone to help avoid medication errors. He added that taking the wrong medication due to these errors can put the patient’s life in danger.
How to Make Sure You’re Taking the Right Medicine
- Check your doctor’s prescription to see if you can understand what’s written
- Don’t be shy to ask the medications’ names and the right dosage you need to take
- Don’t be afraid to request your doctor to make the medication name easier to read so you won’t mix up your medicines
- Double check the name of the medicines you receive from the pharmacy
- Buy a pill box or labeled container to help you keep track of the medications (many people forget whether they’ve already taken the medicine or not)
- If you have plenty of medicines, organize them and create a list of what you need to drink for a particular hour of the day
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