Lady swindled by old sweepstakes scam artist

BAGUIO CITY – A lady was swindled by sweepstakes scam artist here Tuesday around 1:30 p.m. along Cariño St. fronting Sizzling Plate Restaurant.

Police named the victim as Mary Teresa Padawel Vergara, 32, who was reportedly victimized by Celso Fernandez Ferrer, 65, resident of Aurora Felipe residence, Scout Barrio.

 Investigation disclosed that the victim was headed to Philippine Statistics Authority office when she was stopped by the suspect who sweet talked her and showed her PCSO “Scratch It” cards, scratched a ticket a and told  Vergara she won P20,000.

At that point, the suspect asked for P1,500.00 from the victim in exchange for the winning card to which the victim agreed and gave him the money. The suspect told her she can surrender the winning card at any lotto outlet to claim her price. The victim, then proceeded to Abanao Square Mall lotto outlet to have the cards validated. The lotto outlet personnel informed her that one of the card’s winning number had been tampered.

The victim then reported the incident to police where she was shown  mug shots of criminals and saw recognized the suspect who had previous records with same modus operandi.