EDITORIAL – Unexplained wealth

Pyramid scams have been around for many years, with the perpetrators exploiting their victims’ greed or ignorance of financial transactions. The con artists promise returns that are way higher than any bank can offer — a fact that should be enough to raise alarm bells but which victims overlook. Often victims are too embarrassed to file a complaint even when they have lost a fortune, and the perpetrators manage to flee with their loot.

The lure of get-rich-quick schemes is bound to be stronger for those who want to invest excess cash but don’t want to alert anyone about unexplained wealth. This is one reason pyramid scams continue to flourish: if victims are investing hot money, they are unlikely to file a complaint when they are swindled.

The pyramid schemes, however, also victimize people who earned their money legitimately. Life savings, earned through hard work, have been wiped out by pyramid scams. In a land where the promise of instant wealth has made the state lottery, sweepstakes and illegal numbers games hugely popular, people continue to keep taking their chances on pyramid schemes. The government must launch an information campaign to help people avoid losing their hard-earned money to swindlers.

At the same time, however, the go-vernment must look into the sources of income of some of the victims. Last Thursday morning, police arrested a woman who reportedly gypped some 12,000 cops, soldiers, members of the National Bureau of Investigation and civilians of up to P5 billion in a pyramid scheme. Reports said among the victims of suspect Maria Teresa Santos were ranking officers of the police, military and NBI, including the chief of one of the police units that apprehended her. The list of Santos’ alleged victims should be an interesting read. Some of the victims, including middle-level officers, reportedly lost millions of pesos each.

Was that legitimate income that they lost? The questionable source of some officers’ investments is believed to be one of the reasons why it took some time before law enforcers moved to arrest Santos. The case against her could serve as a starting point for conducting a lifestyle check on police and military officers.