Cops hunting down scammer who posed as Panabo police chief
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DAVAO CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines – Law enforcers in Panabo, Davao del Norte, have been running after a man who posed as the chief of police of that city to mulct a pharmacy of a cellular phone load and medicines.
In a report Wednesday, the Panabo City Police Station said someone pretended to be Lt. Col. Adelon M. Caacbay, the station chief.
The man, speaking in Tagalog and introducing himself as the police chief, called a pharmacy in the city and ordered medicines.
He asked the pharmacy attendant to prepare his order as he would come to pay and pick it up.
Several minutes later, the man again called up the pharmacy and asked for a cellular phone load. The attendant gave him about P5,000 worth of load.
Article continues after this advertisementAt this point, the attendant began to suspect that the man was a scammer and immediately reported him to the police station.
Article continues after this advertisementThe station denied it was the police chief who made the call.
The pharmacy attendant learned that any transaction involving the station would be channeled through the proper offices — in this case, the City Health Office. It would also require a prescription from an accredited.
An employee of the police station who would need medicine would appear personally at the pharmacy with a prescription.
In case the employee would not able to go to the pharmacy, the designated buyer would also need the prescription from an accredited physician.
The police called on the public to be vigilant against the activities of scammers.
“We know that these people are within our community and are monitoring those whom they can scam or deceive. Let us unite to fight them and help us so we can defeat this problem and arrest these criminals,” it added.
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