Monday, June 1, 2015

Lesson learned before Jaja left..

You have to know about this. You might be the next victim.

Yesterday, I and the rest of the household were sad as we bid goodbye to one of our housemate, Jaja. Jaja stayed almost a year with us but she has to leave for a better opportunity. Her new workplace is far from our home so she has to live with a relative near there.

At around 2 in the afternoon, she left the house with a smiling face as she promised to visit us some time and we wished her a safe trip. After that, we went on to what we were doing. My mother continued cleaning, father still played computer games and me and Cherry went to rest after a long trip (we just came back from the province). Really, I didn't expect something to come up. I was about to fall asleep when I suddenly heard Shiralee telling mom that Jaja's money (the one thousand peso bill) was fake! What!? After hearing that, I opened my eyes and went upstairs.

Luckily, Shiralee was able to check her phone on an instant. There, Jaja texted her she was not yet on a bus because the money my mother had gave her was a fake. Unfortunately that was the only money Jaja had. We told her to go back here immediately.All or us were confused and things started to come out. How come mom's money was a fake when it came from a pawn agency? Surely a reliable pawn agency won't gave you a fake money since they have their own money detector. Second, along with that money was given to auntie and how come auntie was able to spend it? We keep on speculating until we suspected that maybe she was victimized by today's modus operandi.

We waited for Jaja to come back and minutes later, a crying her was knocking at the gate. We quickly paid the cab she rode and led her inside. We asked her what happened and she told us that she went to buy some fruits near the terminal (because her aunt said so) and just as about she handed the one-thousand bill to the vendor, the vendor immediately declared it's fake! We were shocked and awed as she showed the money already torn into pieces (the vendor tore it)! Just as we touched the money, it's just a plain paper! It's just printed and the seal and security marks were just pasted. Jaja was all throughout fooled by the vendor because mom remembered her money was not as old as the one Jaja presented.

It was so sad as we saw Jaja crying with regret. It wouldn't have happened if she just went straight to the bus terminal. Mom can't give her the same amount so she just gave a right amount that could get her to the province. Wiping her tears and convincing that everything will be ok, Jaja decided to leave and catch the last trip going to her hometown,

Poor Jaja. Tsk. Tsk. But how did that swindlers did it? Actually, we didn't know but maybe that as they received Jaja's money, they have already the fake money clutched in their hands . Jaja recalled that the vendor called another guy to check it. They maybe exchanged it with the fake one.

We couldn't go back to the store and investigate further and so we let the situation pass and serve as a lesson. A lesson that we have to remember everytime we transact money, big or small. If this situation happened to me, I wouldn't be able to sleep a night regretting. I'm a careless person too. That's why that in order for us not to be fooled, we should be mindful with our belongings. Check the money we have and if possible, choose where you spend your money. This modus operandi is spreading across the country and not only this, bad elements are everywhere. You just don't know when your unlucky day is so being watchful is a must. I guess it was not Jaja's day at all.

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