Police warn public against name-dropping con artists

The police warned establishments to  beware of people who transact business over the phone and drop the name of prominent figures.

Two con-artists were able to acquire new car batteries and cellphone load by misrepresenting themselves as  Mandaue City Mayor  Jonas Cotes and a  barangay captain of Mandaue City.

Two firms were the recent victims of this modus operandi, said Insp. Ramil Morpos, chief of the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB) of the Mandaue  police.

On Jan. 5, Orient Star Marketing in Mandaue City received a call from a man who claimed to be Mayor Cortes and ordered two car batteries to be delivered to City Hall.

The firm sent their delivery man with the batteries worth P10,400 each.

At the City Hall, a man approached the delivery man, Nestor Pilapil.

Thinking he was the mayor’s staff member,   Pilapil  accompanied him to a car shop in  A.C. Cortes Street where they installed one of the batteries in a vehicle.

Then they went back to the City Hall presumably to collect  payment.

Pilapil was left at the parking lot while the unidentified man, described as 5’7” in height, with a slim build and a fair complexion,  went upstairs.

He didn’t come back.

After waiting for  20 minutes,  Pilapil went looking for him to no avail.

When the delivery man went back to the shop, he was told that the man already left on board a vehicle.  The batteries were gone.

Pilapil reported the incident to the police.

Last month, a hotel in Mandaue City was also hit by a scam artist, who called up and identified himself as  Subangdaku barangay captain Ernie Manatad.

The caller asked for P1,000 in cell phone load credits, which the hotel staff granted.

They waited for him to come over, book a room and pay for the load but no one came.

Police suspect one person pulled off both scams.

They will  soon release a  cartographic sketch of the perpetrator based on the description given by Pilapil.