PHOTOWALL: A Slice of Nasugbu (Batangas)

Here is another posting of photos sans the wordy elaboration in the normal blog post. The place that I visited this time is the Batangas town of Nasugbu.

An artefact of Nasugbu's glorious azucarera past.

"Six angels" in Nasugbu Church.

Too much phone makes one alone.

Blue sky. Orange horizon.

These are few of the photos that I took for our advanced celebration of our anniversary of starting our relationship. Lei and I began our story almost a decade ago but I can still remember it as if it just happened yesterday. Time is really fast.

Aside from celebrating our anniversary, our visit to Nasugbu is extra-special because it was the first time when Little Ahab met the salty sea. Our baby’s reaction is amusing. He’s both scared and amazed that such a big body of water exists.

Me, Lei, and Little Ahab, and even Bunso in Lei’s tummy; all enjoyed this very short vacation at Nasugbu’s beach. We hope to repeat this fun next year.

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SCAM ALERT! Cancel Overpayment Scam in Sun Cellular Postpaid

A scammer tried to steal load from me last weekend. This scammer was not successful. I am not an idiot as he/she thinks I am.

The scammer claimed that Sun Cellular over-charged 50 pesos because I allegedly called and texted while on roaming. He/she/it told me that I can cancel the overpayment by texting “50 09330883428” and sending it to 2292.

2292 is the number used for Sun Cellular’s Give-a-Load. In short, the scammer tried to trick me in giving he/she/it a 50-peso load.

I reported the scam to Sun Cellular via Twitter and I received this quick response:

I’m glad that Sun Cellular is taking these scams seriously.

So, what are the telltale signs that that text message is a scam? Well, the obvious sign is the scammer used a regular eleven-digit number. Sun Cellular (and most telcos) uses four-digit numbers when sending messages. Sun Cellular numbers are usually saved in your sim already so they will register in your phone as “Sun Cellular”.

Another obvious sign is that Sun Cellular will not ask you to transact via text messaging. Payments, cancellation of overpayments, and other transactions are conducted in the Sun Shop.

The best action when receiving this kind of messages is to inform Sun Cellular and verify the truthfulness of the message that you receive. People at Sun call center will help you on this.

Christmas is around the corner and I bet that I will receive more dubious messages like the one above. In fact, I received different scam text messages in the past like:

1. That I won 1 million from a so-or-so foundation even though I didn’t join any of their raffles. I can only claim the prize if I send 500-peso load to the scammer.

2. A “relative” informing me that he/she/it sent a package. She will tell me the details of her padala if I send a 500-peso load.

3. A text message that claimed that me and my family has shameful photos uploaded in Facebook or some dubious websites.

And my favorite:

4. A scammer telling me that I stole his friend’s cellphone and the police is now looking for me. I posted about that experience in my post “My Nasty Experience with the Budol-Budol Gang”.

The last scam in the list was so persistent in harassing me that I was forced to change my number just to have a peace of mind.

Everybody is bound to receive text scams. Don’t fall for it. Report them to the telcos and NTC.

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Photowall: A First Look at the City of Bandung, Indonesia

The City of Bandung, the so-called Paris of Java, is my recent destination for this year’s out-of-the country adventure. The city is more Asian than Parisian. Here are the first shots that I took of this Indonesian city.

The city crowded with roofs, chaotic city layout = Manila.

Bandung Airport.

Krupuk which is very similar to our kropek.

Houses of Bandung.

Holland Bakery, one of the remaining artifacts of Bandung's Duth past.

Bandung is beautiful city in its own ways. I know that photos that I posted here do not give it justice. I do hope to take better photos in the remaining days of my stay here. 

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