Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Has the e-mail of the chief government negotiator with the MILF been hacked?

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By Raïssa Robles

There is an e-mail going around, purportedly from University of the Philippines Professor Miriam Coronel asking for a loan.

Here it is below:

I really hope you get this fast. I could not inform anyone about our trip, because it was impromptu. we had to be in Kuala Lumpur(Malaysia) for Tour..  The program was successful, but our journey has turned sour. we misplaced our wallet and cell phone on our way back to the hotel we lodge in after we went for sight seeing. The wallet contained all the valuables we had. Now, our passport is in custody of the hotel management pending when we make payment.

I am sorry if i am inconveniencing you, but i have only very few people to run to now. i will be indeed very grateful if i can get a short term loan   from you(2,550). this will enable me sort our hotel bills and get my sorry self back home. I will really appreciate whatever you can afford in assisting me with. I promise to refund it in full as soon as soon as I return. let me know if you can be of any assistance. Please, let me know soonest. Thanks so much.

Prof. Miriam Coronel Ferrer
Chairperson, GPH Negotiating Panel for Talks with the MILF
Department of Political Science, University of the Philippines

I just hope she did not put any confidential files in her e-mail account.

Comments

  1. It’s a worm.

    The worm grabs all the email addresses in your address book, and sends them the email text, using your email address as the sender. Then the recipients will also be infected, and it will send email purporting to be you, to the addresses on your address book.

    The text varies. There is this plea for money; there are ads for guys offering drugs to turn a part of their body into flag poles; there is also text offering US based emails prescription drugs from Canada.

    • I hope no one has fallen for the trick and send money. I share raissa’s concern though that there might be confidential files in the email account. but I think members of the negotiating team were previously briefed about security, and send confidential files through diplomatic post only.

      • like any VIP and traveller to foreign country, I’m assuming prof miriam coronel-ferer has comprehensive travel insurance. she’s protected against losses incured overseas.

    • How can PEACE in Mindanao prosper , if the disgruntled members/ elements of the MILF were now increasing in numbers and fighting the central government? It was like during the MNLF peace agreement wherein dissatisfied members of them separated and formed the MILF….PNOY might be on the right track if the autonomy given to them was ONE of the STEP in tending them their FULL INDEPENDENCE….

  4. All the hallmarks of the classic ‘Nigerian’ scam.

    The amount requested is laughable and it is obviously designed for mass circulation, in the hope that a few fools won’t mind losing a small amount of money. What sort of international hotel holds your passport for 2550 pesos?…hahahaha….ridiculous! Presumably her plane ticket went too so is she going to swim home? Even if she had put her ticket in the hotel safe, that sum would not pay for expenses on the way home like airport fees, taxis etc.

    There are lots of other clues, apart from the contention that one wallet would hold all their valuables. A Professor wallet sharing?…….I don’t think so.

    Why would a University teacher make the elementary grammatical error of not using capital ‘I’ to describe the first person singular? Much of the syntax is incorrect and the use of the idiomatic expression, ‘sorry self,’ does not sound like a well educated woman. If that really is her perhaps I shoufld offer my services to UP and teach them English…..hahaha

    • it’s scam all right. professor miriam coronel is part of the govt’s negotiating team and the team has govt. pondo reserved for their expenses while in malaysia. all their hotel bills and travel expenses are charged against that pondo. I believe that pondo will be audited later. nice try, scammers. you need to do better.

      • [email protected]

        IMO in such project as a peace negotiation brokered and hosted by an affluent State like Malaysia, the local pertinent expenses would be “on the house”. Besides, the amount would be a pittance compared to the international exposure gained by Malaysia as the “peace capital” of Southeast Asia. And in case of a successful poject, just imagine its positive tourism effect on Truly Asia.

        • tama. sagot ng gobyerno ang gastos ng peace process na ito. a short call to the office of butch abad at monetary and budget admin would confirm this. hindi na kailangang magpapalimos ng pera o magmakaawa ang isa sa kanila o sinomang membro ng peace team. hindi sila pinapabayaan ng gobyerno natin.

    • It is probably in US dollars, not pesos, unless KL hotels have started to receive payments in Philippine pesos, which is highly unlikely.

  5. …another SCAM news here re porky barrels from tongres/senatongs funds into this –

    ^Seven years later, Napoles was called in the investigation conducted by the Senate blue ribbon committee on the P728-million fertilizer scam involving then Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante. The inquisitors extracted from her statements that she had formed dummy companies to launder the funds of the Department of Agriculture. Curiously, no charges were officially filed against her.
    (Part 3 tomorrow: How scams were cooked up)

    Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/443825/i-am-not-involved-in-any-scam#ixzz2YtcDV7MQ *

    …wil dis xplode or not?
    Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
    …”

    • Ang tanong “…wil dis xplode or not?”

      Imbestigasyon ng NBI, suma direksyon sa DOJ, di ba?
      Tapus referal kaya sa Ombudsman?

      O sasabayan o umpisahan muna ng Senado, o Bicameral Committee ng magkabilang bahay ng kongresso? Iimbestigahan kaya ang kapwa miyembro ng Kongreso? O may patutunguhan.

      Mas mainam, ituloy ng NBI. Dehado ang taong bayan, lalu na iyong mga gumagawa ng tama sa katungkulang gobyerno at serbisyong pampubliko. Daang miliones o bilyon ang tayang nakawan.

      Kung maliit na civil servant, pulis o imbestigador, kung ‘di suspende – talsik sa trabaho o sukol sa kulungan.

      Kung may prosekusyon na isasampa ang DOJ? Suspende ba ang mga akusado sa trabahong Kongreso?

      Halaah Bira, halaah bira!

  6. …the professor-scammer-hacker-hockier-atbpa! can CALL vp BINAY for SALVATION on that!

    …’an get axed from the VP!

    …sure as helly, devy-hacket gets ‘d death penalty!

    …btw, can any1 deposit to my PB bank…#A43675-0022-13…any amount lang will help to take supper at that resto of the obispourists’…ty in advance!

    • …I accessed the ‘thing’…stopped a touzand times XXXxxxs…now I’m writin’ dis, it’s not finish on it’s privazie e-Mail…

      …fingerprint 4 security…U can loze ur thumbtom & foregingers to biolate the E-mail!

      …ur repli koms In as u ly belO ur obitwary…

  8. Of course it’s a scam. The concern here is that there might have been confidential emails in the hacked account. Hopefully, it’s just a yahoo or gmail account and Prof. Coronel had the sense to separate the senslitive material from her personal account.

  10. scam ito, an insult to the intellegence of professon miriam coronel. as part of negotiating team she has pondo and not a charity case. had she truly lost her cell phone she would have used the hotel’s phone, the landline is safer, and alert or report her loss to authorities. then she’d call her bank asking that transactions without her proper authorization be withheld until further notice. using landline she can also call her friends, her voice alone would alert them if she is the real deal.

  11. This is a goddam scam!!!!, same as those letters from Nigeria !!!! …..at least all the CPMers are all forewarned…..This has happened to me about three times during the last two years….with an emergency email from people I know……what I do is I forward it to the known email address of the person whose name is ‘hacked’ and used. Good advisory….good service for CPM adherent/followers.

  12. The email account scam even delves in sending messages purportedly by your high street bank asking for your bank account details to rectify some errors in your bank transactions. It also sends message saying you won a lottery, that you have to send your bank account details to transfer the winnings into your account.

    Facebook accounts are also sources of information for these scams. Be careful on what you input to your FB -your address, telephone number, bank account details, your date of holidays. If these scammers know you are going on holidays and your address in on your FB, they can ransack your house.

    Never ever divulge your bank account details in your email account, the hackers and scammers are notorious prowlers of this site.

  13. It seems that the lost wallet is owned and used by more than one person. First time I learn such thing or condition. Look at this.

    ” we misplaced our wallet and cell phone on our way back to the hotel we lodge in after we went for sight seeing. The wallet contained all the valuables we had.”

    I think the e-mail is spurious. Docbebot may be correct. It’s a scam. BTW who is/are the recipient/s. I guess there are more than one.

  14. I had the same experience. My friend’s email account was hacked and sent emails to all her friends asking for money. I hope that her email account does not contain sensitive info.

    • Definitely a scam, i received this email too 2 weeks ago, but of course not the same name. My Visa Card i have to cancelled it too somebody’s using it in the US while i am in the Phils. So i don’t buy anything online anymore and i always pay my bill cash from thereafter.