Oh no.

A little scam story.

My sister received a very disturbing phonecall earlier this afternoon.

With a shaky voice, the caller represented herself as someone who was from the agency my brother works at. It seems like she perfected the art of this scam and has memorized her speech. She first asked if my sister had a brother who works at sea. She said yes and gave her my brother's name for verification. She did that out of panic and fear. But the caller was polite enough to tell that she was sorry that something bad had happened to my brother while at at a foreign sea apparently. Te kay fear took over my sister instantly, she forgot how and what to think at that time. The impulses nga nag sindut sa lawas niya all led to more panic. We couldn't blame her for that.

The caller, na tagu-on ta sa ngalan nga Napoles. Napoles told her that she couldn't call my sister-in-law because it was my sister whom my brother had chosen to call. My sister was already panicking to the point nga gina paypayan na sya sang iloy ko kay daw malipong na. 

Napoles told her a story and it went on a little like this. She was going hysterical telling my sister that my brother had an ugly fight with the captain of the ship. Gin lampusan sang kapitan ang utod ko kag nag balos kag gin buno balik ang kapitan. Napatay ang kapitan. My sister was held speechless at this time. And that my brother  was on a plane heading home at the time nga ga storyahanay sila. They asked for my sister's bank account because that's where my brother was supposed to send his money before everything else got ugly. Uglier than it already was. My sister was already sending signals to everyone in our living room to get her purse with her account number in it. 

My father had the most presence of mind. He didn't know what was going on because he could only hear the nearest end of the line of the conversation. Or more like natulok ya lang magulang ko gaparamuti nga daw malipong. He had little idea of what was going on but it sure didn't look good. He kept his composure. But as soon as he heard the word bank account, he was already telling my sister to cut the line off.  

My sister asked more questions just to verify the incident, that was when they were trying to figure out how insane the situation was. Napoles even said that they needed money to keep my brother safe because the NBI had a shoot to kill order for my brother. It was that bad.

My brother is more than okay by the way. Praise the heavens above.

The story sounded almost impossible and absurd when we talk about it now.

But the fear and panic that had crept into our hearts earlier were real.

You know it's not nice to play with people's feelings like that.

Oh Napoles and your gang, the things you do to earn money. And the people who actually are giving out people's phone numbers to the minions of Napoles. You're just as bad as well. 

Oh right! Poverty. 

I've always known how this world can be very unsafe. How humanity nga gina tubu-an na amat amat bangkil subong. Some people might've lived through it everyday. But I've never really believed in it until now. Some kurulbaan thoughts to share before calling it a night.

But for what's it worth, I love you toto Ima!

Gute nacht.