Mikaela Veronica Cabrera during her arrest in Taguig City. | Contributed photo
The supposed scammer, identified as Mikaela Veronica Cabrera, 26 years old, was arrested on Friday at a condominium in Taguig City at exactly 6:36 p.m., based on a police report obtained from the National Capital Region Police Office.
Akin to Anna Delvey — the protagonist of the true story Netflix-miniseries “Inventing Anna” who posed as a German heiress to scam the elites of New York, United States — Cabrera is a fraudster who tricked unsuspecting victims to fund her “dying business.”
But her ploy of scamming numerous victims of millions of pesos — which allegedly went on for years — was finally put to an end after a real estate agent discovered her identity while they were trying to close a property deal.
According to the real estate agent, who chose to be anonymous (Inquirer.net will also use gender-neutral pronouns for the sake of anonymity), Cabrera was a potential lessee of their client and tried to pay using a check — which ended up being a bounced check.
“Nagbayad siya through tseke, tapos itinawag namin sa bank through verify, pero ang sabi closed na raw ‘yung account (she paid through check, then we called the bank to verify, but they said the account is already closed),” the agent told Inquirer.net.
“So hindi na nagpush-through ‘yung client ko kasi syempre sketchy na, pero nagpahanap ulit siya [Cabrera] ng bagong lessor somewhere sa BGC (Bonifacio Global City) (so my client didn’t push through because of course it was sketchy, but she insisted in finding her a new lessor somewhere in BGC),” they added.
But instead, the agent said their suspicion motivated them to do another background check on Cabrera, which led to them discovering a Facebook page dedicated to the scammer, under the name “Mikaela Veronica Sese Cabrera A Scammer.”
The agent then messaged the page, which was managed by one of the victims of Cabrera.
The victim told the agent that Cabrera owed him P10-million and owed another victim he knows P6-million.
They said that Cabrera posed as a “desperate businesswoman” online, who set up a narrative that her business is failing and is in dire need of help.
After learning this, the agent said they decided to work with the victims and the necessary authorities, setting Cabrera up with another client, as part of an entrapment operation the Taguig City Police arranged.
Thinking that she has finally closed a deal with a lessor, Cabrera was then arrested on her way to the condominium.
According to the Philippine National Police, a warrant of arrest for violation of Batas Pambansa Blg. 2 or the “Anti-Bouncing Check Law” was presented to Cabrera during her arrest.
Cabrera is currently detained at Taguig City Police’s substation in Barangay Fort Bonifacio, BGC, Taguig.
The hustle
Cabrera tricked her victims — most of whom are men who she met from online dating applications — by introducing herself as a founder of a fashion company called AUMA Fashion Styling Firm.
A quick Google search on the said fashion agency would lead you to a now-inactive Instagram page, and even several articles featuring her business when it first launched.
According to the victims, Cabrera fabricates what they called a “sob story” in order to convince them to lend her large sums of money to help her recoup her business.
However, Cabrera disappeared without a trace and without paying her victims every time.