ABYG kung hindi ako nagsend ng 10K sa “friend” ko who suddenly messaged me asking for financial help worth 50K because of an emergency?

‼️PLEASE DO NOT POST THIS OUTSIDE REDDIT‼️

This friend was a school friend from college, 10 years ago. We were classmates lang during freshman year and been in the same group for only 1 sem. After that, he transferred na to a different campus and had different set of friends na din. Since then, we haven’t had any communication, like even on birthdays nga I didn’t get any greeting naman. I just checked right now, we are also not friends on FB and IG anymore, idk why… I must have removed him when I was cleaning up my FB. I couldn’t find him on IG, I think he deactivated. Tho I can find another account with his name but zero follower count. I remember him as someone who is quiet but also funny and always the reliable guy friend na we can count on. So that’s the background.

Tonight, I saw his chat on messenger… nangamusta and asking if he can ask something daw. I replied and asked what’s up and then he said na sorry daw if biglaan siya nagchat after a long time pero may a-ask daw na favor and if he can call. I said okay, and then stepped out of the restau to take his call. Initially iniisip ko baka mag-aalok ng insurance plan, meron naman na akong SunLife insurance but willing to buy another to help lang din.

He called via messenger video call and I saw his face naman. And then, he said that he is working in a far place and that his family needs financial help since one of the family members were taken to the hospital. What he wanted to happen is I will transfer money thru online banking and then he will pay me tomorrow by depositing the money back to my account thru over the counter bank deposit. The reason why he needs to do this way is because there is no open bank na as of the moment kasi nga gabi naman na. He said na inuna naman daw niya imessage mga close friends kaso desperate na because of the emergency kaya he’s messaging people na on FB.

At first, I was thinking that okay it is indeed an emergency… so I ask him, “How much?” and he said “50K sana, kaya ba?” Mejo nagulat ako and chuckled a little. I told him na I cannot do 50K because I also just did online transactions today and I might hit my transaction limit, esp that he wanted to send the money to Maya (at first) but he said pwede din daw Gcash. But honestly, I just said this because I need to minimize the risk on my end… 50K is no joke! I have it for sure, but maybe kung kapatid ko or bestfriend ko yung mau kailangan ibibigay ko.

Next thing he said was how much daw kaya yung pwede ko itransfer? I said, “I can transfer 10K.” And then he said that okay na yung 10K kesa wala and he said sorry daw talaga kasi emergency lang. I was leaning towards doing it but my curious mind told me to ask more questions. At this time, mga 5mins na ako sa labas ng restau and my family was looking at me while I was standing outside talking to this friend.

So I asked questions: - “You can’t do online banking ba?” He doesn’t have an online bank account. He only has Gcash and Paymaya but walang laman na money yung e-wallet and he only has cash money. - Next, I asked him what was the emergency and he said “Stroke”. - I asked him to also message our other classmates before na mas ka-close niya ng matagal. I said, “Try mo din si *****” Then he said na minessage na daw niya pero hindi pa nagrereply. - I wanted to ask him to show me the cash first before but I don’t want to sound rude and insensitive given there is an emergency. So I asked him if wala bang Gcash account yung hospital where the family member was brought and then he didn’t respond and just said other things.

Then I stopped asking questions na. Then I told him sige I can send 10K sa gcash after the call, then he said na isesend na niya yung gcash details rn and hintayin niya na daw na isend ko and hindi na niya papatayin yung video call. But I ended the call and stayed outside for another 2mins trying to make sense of the situation like nag-analyze muna ako… then I went back inside the restau and ate dinner with my fam.

So right now, I haven’t sent him the money yet because of the following reasons: 1) If it is indeed an emergency, why not try family/relatives first? I remember him being the bunso in the family so he should have other siblings to go to

2) HMO card. He is still single and he has work naman daw so I was thinking, wala bang HMO card na dependent niya yung parents nya? My mom is my dependent kasi sa HMO and it’s really useful both in- and out-patient and even sa ER. No deposit needed to be admitted.

3) Something is off about not having an online banking account at this point and only Gcash/Maya. I remember that all banks right now are encouraging holders to do online banking na din

4) Okay given the benefit of the doubt, he could go to the nearest 7/11 and just do a cash-in to his gcash/maya to be able to transfer the money to his family

5) I find it also off that kahit one of his closest friends or even best friends have not responded to him? Kasi parang buong 50K pa rin yung need niya sa akin and when I offered 10K he said mas okay na yun kesa wala

6) Lastly, given that it is an emergency… and he can’t do online banking… maybe he should just go home to their place to bring the cash to the hospital?

I just couldn’t connect the dots and my gut feel is telling me to not send the money, BUT my conscience is also eating me from the inside ☹️ So ABYG?

EDIT: Also, I feel bad for not responding to his chats na, he’s asking me kasi to send the receipt of the transfer and wala pa daw siya narereceive so baka daw namali ako ng number na napagsendan. I don’t know how to say na I am not planning to send na. I’m a cold bitch as a person pero I find it hard to turn down the asks for help, kaya I don’t know what to say 😭