PLEASE DO NOT REPOST IN OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS.

TLDR: I got scammed in 2024, lost ALL MY MONEY that led me to became financially compromised, and now I have collections agency "emotionally and psychologically" pressuring me to settle my obligation.

In all honesty, I am still slightly traumatized by what happened to me last Wednesday. Before I relate what happened I will provide a little flashback here.

Back in January 2024, I had to take a 20% pay cut from my previous employer. All Senior Leaders were to take that pay cut (save the Finance Head being the most crucial senior leader). The company (I worked for a start-up) was not doing well, and the investors were not very happy with the Company's performance for 2023. 20% is a big pay cut but in my head, okay lang. I would rather take it than see more people being let go. We already had to let go one employee. I am not liquid. I am paying off debts, credit card bills, other bills, and my own tuition for graduate school. While I do have a part-time job (I teach), what I earn from there is honestly not much (yes, teaching is among the lowest earning professions here in PH despite how tedious and taxing the job is, so please respect your teachers especially those who are just passionate at doing this). I was looking for either a more stable job or another part-time job that I can do.

Fast forward to May 2024, I got a text message in my Viber number telling me I was shortlisted for a part-time WFH opportunity. All I had to do was follow some IG influencer page, and for a certain number of pages followed, you earn a quota. Easy enough to do so I gave it a try. It did pay-off (like 1k/day). Little did I know, I was heading fast to probably the lowest ooint of my life. After a full day of doing the said sideline, the recruiter placed me in a group chat with a "coach" who would tell me what do. Its a "special task" wherein I had to pre-pay a certain amount (for beginners, minimum of 1,000 Php but that is just for one time). The coach gave instructions on how to invest in crypto with the promise of returning the prepayment plus whatever it is that you would earn from it. "Okay, it isn't that big" I thought to myself. But my gut was telling me that something was wrong. Why would I need to pre-pay? Why do I need to transfer the pre-pay to personal bank accounts and not a corporate account? Despite all the warnings my gut was telling me I still went on with it. Soon, I was placed in a "group task" with four (4) other part-timers and all of us were asked to pre-pay, This is where all hell broke loose. The coach told our team that the client was happy and we had to re-do the task a second time. The amount of money we needed to pre-pay increased significantly. The second pre-pay task earned and the coach said, the client wanted a 3rd pre-pay task. The amount we needed to pre-pay tripled. When I was doing the task, something on my platform went wrong. The timer disappeared and I had no idea whether my task (cyrpto investment) went through. I panicked, repeated the task (I had crypto in the wallet still and re-invested everything). To cut the long story short, the 3rd task failed, everyone in the team lost all investments and earning, and the team members were blaming me for it. I tried explaining what happened but they would not listen. One of the members was cussing me, saying a lot of malicious things already. The coach said we can recover but the amount we needed to pay became 5x bigger. Of course I was desperate. It failed because of me but even with the recovery, it did not earn as expected so we needed to pay again 6 digits (each in that group). So the group composition is: 2 seasoned part-timers, and 2 newbies. The person wjo was cussing and saying malicious things to me was one of the seasoned part-timers (proudly saying doing this for years), the other seasoned part-timer was pacifying him. The fellow newbie was saying a lot of desperate things and low-key guilt-tripping me. When I saw the 5-digit amount we needed to pre-pay that was what snapped me out of that "part-time" scheme and I had the sinking realization...

I just got scammed.

I posted my story in the scam sub-reddit and several redditors in the said sub-reddit reached out to me to teach me how to report what happened. They told me it was a "Task Scam" commonly happening in messaging apps like Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber (I was reached through Viber). One Redditor even helped me file a complaint (bless you beautiful soul).

The repercussion of my moment of stupidity? Guilt because what if it was legit? Shame. How can a part-time teacher, senior leader, graduate student, etc - fall for such a scheme? Desperation. I lost EVERYTHING in my savings and day-to-day money and I was facing the fact I would not be able to pay ALL MY OBLIGATIONS on schedule, and I owed people money just so I could pre-pay the "first recovery". I have been financially struggling since May of last year. I reached a point wherein it crossed my mind to become an escort or try sugar dating. The lowest point was when I just wanted to crash the car I was driving and end my life because of shame, guilt and burden of my major fuck-up.

Fast forward to Wednesday, 15 January 2025. I received a text message from a certain police officer. He said I will be receiving a warrant of arrest for 3 counts of Estafa filed by a certain lawyer. He asked me to call the lawyer for "humanitarian" reasons and for me to avoid scandal in the neighborhood where I live. So I called the lawyer. It was about a cash app loan I have not paid yet. I just started a new job and frankly just starting to rebuild my finances. I was feeling good already because I am able to start paying my obligations (even though in small increments). The lawyer said I needed to pay by 3:30 PM otherwise the police will go to my house and arrest me. The case is non-bailable he said. I had kept a small amount in my savings and I had to withdraw it just so I could pay of the Php 11,055.00 amount that I owed. He said he'd release an affidavit to the police. Until now (as I write this, I check my phone, feeling very anxious). I visited some sub/reddits here and apparently what I experienced is a common tactic of a certain collections company here in PH. Apparently, a lot of fellow Redditors experienced the same thing I experienced.

2024 was one hell of a year for me. It tested me in so many ways. Despite how shitty 2024 was for me, I still look at the past year with gratitude. It taught me so much about myself, about what I need to improve, what I need to do. I am more hopeful this 2025. Sometimes I wish I could win the lotto (as if I actually bet) or some good soul will just tell me "go restart your life, here is Php n,000,000,000.00" Of course this is just wishful thinking. I know I need to work hard, be more prudent and responsible with managing my finances, pay off whatever I can until I can finally say "YES, YOU AMAZING GIRL, FINANCIALLY FREE, DEBT-FREE!".

I am not asking for any advise here. The last thing I need is your judgment because I am already painfully aware of my fuck-up and I judge myself critically already. I don't need that please. I posted a short version of this story before but I am being asked repeatedly how I got scammed (so there you have it). If you will read this, learn from my story. Listen to your gut. When alarm bells ring in your head and heart, listen to it and it will save you. Ins spite and despite of what has happened, I remain steadfast in my journey. To quote what an amazing friend and fellow Redittor told me, "Keep moving forward."

Thank you for reading. I just need to let this out.

I will eventually remove this post.

Padayon!