Businessman duped into paying P4.15 M for 200 boxes of ordinary flour

MANILA, Philippines—A businessman lost more than P4 million to con artists, including a Saudi national, who tricked him into buying chemical products that were supposed to convert used oil into diesel but turned out instead to be ordinary flour, police said.

Jose Endaya, 68, of Barangay Marilag told the authorities that he lost P4.15 million to buy what he thought were “ionic cleansing additives” that supposedly would convert used motor oil into diesel.

But upon checking out his “purchases” on Friday morning, he found that the boxes only ordinary flour, according to case investigator Police Officer 2 Hermogenes Capili.

Apart from the Saudi national, the swindlers included two Filipino men and a woman. The police were withholding the names the four gave Endaya so as not to compromise their investigation and efforts to catch the swindlers.

Capili said other people had fallen prey to similar scams.

According to Capili, Endaya first encountered one of the men a week ago while he was trying to sell two condominium units to him.

The man then told him he had 500 boxes of the “ionic cleansing additives” that he was willing to sell for P4 million.

The Saudi Arabian national came in much later, according to Capili, first inquiring from Endaya about the condominium units for sale and then asking if he knew anyone else selling the kind of products the first man had pitched to Endaya.

The foreigner said he wanted to buy 500 boxes of the product at P5 million for his business.

Endaya then called up the first man so he could  buy the products, with the first 200 boxes delivered to the victim’s home last June 19.

Endaya gave two checks payable to a woman after the first man promised to deliver the rest of the products later, Capili said, adding police have established that the checks had been encashed already.

The next day, a man claiming to be a partner in the business, told the victim to deposit P150,000 for the delivery of 30 more boxes of the product, which Endaya did.

But on Friday morning, the complainant received anonymous text messages that he had been duped. So he checked the boxes and confirmed his worst fears, Capili said.