Foxy Suzy

Similar extortion attempt happened to my husband who was then my fiance 3 yrs. ago. On his second trip to Philippines he stayed at Holiday Inn Manila, same hotel he stayed during his first visit. There was a guy who keeps calling at our hotel room and insisting on talking to Marc but gave up after sensing that I will never let
him talk to Marc. I knew right there and then that that’s another modus operandi of a group of people who wants to extort money from foreigners because I’ve heared a lot about their different ways of victimizing people. It doesn’t matter whether you are Filipino or foreigner.
What puzzles me is how can these guys gained access to a travelers personal information.
Could it be that there are some hotel employees in connivance with this gang?

Gang tried to mulct another balikbayan
GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc
The Philippine Star 11/11/2005

A reader notes striking similarities in the plight of balikbayan Maria and that of his female friend Micky.

In late Oct. Maria checked into a hotel in Cubao, Quezon City, for a five-day visit to her sick mom (Gotcha, 7 Nov. 2005). It was to be a traumatic stay. Apparently with the aid of a hotel receptionist and room boy, thugs claiming to be with the terrorist Abu Sayyaf extorted from her P5,000 and 16 cell phone cards. Maria hurriedly left for the US that night, fearful they’d come back for more.

Micky arrived in Manila morning of Oct. 26 for a two-week holiday. She had booked with a travel agent in Los Angeles her stay in a hotel on Dela Rosa Street, Makati, connected with a local airline’s promo. Upon settling in, Micky walked to nearby Greenbelt for lunch with childhood friends – but not before requesting for room makeup. At 2:30 p.m. she returned and found the room still undone. She phoned a friend (the STAR reader) to complain to the management about it, which the latter did.

At about 3 p.m. the front desk called Micky to say that a certain Joan wanted to talk to her. She said she didn’t know any such person and hung up. That call apparently was made to ascertain her identity. For, minutes later the receptionist called again to say that Micky’s cousin named Albert Ahmed and three men in polo barong were at the lobby with gifts, so would she please come down to meet them. When Micky replied that she wasn’t expecting any cousin, the woman said Ahmed wanted to talk to her.

Before Micky could say anything more, a man’s voice came on and said he was with a pangkat (gang) that included the receptionist, bellhop and doorman, all the way to management. In Tagalog, “Ahmed” asked if Micky could help them, and when she said she did not understand what he meant, he told her straight they wanted money.

At that point there was a knock on the door. Although frightened, Micky opened it and a man introduced himself as the hotel manager. Micky told him what was going on. The manager grabbed the phone and barked into it, “Who is this?” He ended up shouting, “I am the hotel manager and I know there is no Josie on duty at the front desk.” It turned out he never got to talk to “Ahmed” because the phone was passed back to the female caller.

Story from The Philippine Star.