The phone rang mid-afternoon and the voice was familiar. A successful businessman, I asked for help and guidance because I'd just answer the call of a woman who asked for a donation to a survivor of the landslide in Huanuco and wanted to investigate the details. The number she had left the series began with 407. It was one of those phones cellular telephone companies. There began my suspicions and the sad discovery of a group of undesirables who use the news of a tragedy to try to rip off companies.
She immediately responded: Rosario Anaya said called and of course was not the only information I asked. My journalistic training helped me to detect fraud with a few additional questions, clarifications to the mysterious woman who could not respond coherently. Claiming to represent an organization called "Humanitarian Aid" (too much originality for my taste) and that it "belonged" to the "Government of the Child Advocacy, based in Ambo - Huanuco and trained by foreign funds." In short, an armed cantinflas to confuse some unsuspecting, not me.
But what struck me was when I asked for data from the "beneficiary", in this case it was supposedly a fragile baby girl born 24 days, which lost her mother in the avalanche. Any well-informed citizen knows that the Ambo disaster occurred more than a month. When you dimension the item to the scammer (I must confess that I was starting to laugh at their inconsistency) she immediately changed his version saying that the mother had been dying and that he led the delivery while dying.
"Miss, you do not understand well, maybe not let me understand why I am very worried," he said with exaggerated voice of anguish.
should write soap operas this lady, who seconds later and with the same voice telling me infinite pain the girl called Milagros Cepeda.
"Look Miss Monica, such as chance, the baby has the same name. Here in Huánuco many countrymen with the surname Cepeda.
Obviously, countered:
- Are you in Huánuco ", but this number is from Lima.
"Yes, but my organization has a service that transfers calls to here. Rather, I am in a hurry, I go to the hospital Essalud Ambo to see if the child operate today. I need a deposit of 4 thousand suns I asked. I do not want cash delivered to me, but I deposited the supplier of a device that the child needs to correct the esophagus is blocked. Here everything is transparent, M. Huanuco provider here given invoice, send it by mail, do not worry, I just need the number of RUC of the company. The girl can not be moved to Lima because it has hemoglobin 4 and is hazardous to your health.
All, absolutely all the information was false and the details here as a warning signal. Even though my nose for news told me that here was a clear intent to scam, I found time information sources across the victims of Ambo in Huanuco, journalists, Essalud, Ministry of Health and to INABIF. In this way my report was complete and my anger against these undesirable marked cent.
"Now if I ask for help, I will no longer ignore," he had said by telephone the leader of the survivors and relatives of the victims of landslide in Huanuco, when I told the story . So I thought it was my duty to write this post and finish emphasizing the importance of companies accompany their good intentions with a preflight donation and responsible.
help the most needy is important, check that they exist and that donations will come, too.
