SCAM: SM City Clark Mall in Angeles City - Older Women Offer Younger Daughter/Neice
This may be common sense to most, but I like to give firsthand scam warnings when I can. I likely dodged a bullet recently.
I was at SM City Clark Mall during the day in the red-light district of Angeles City, Philippines. I was minding my business waiting on my Tinder date when two Filipina women in their 50s or 60s approached me asking lots of question about my home and career. Then they offered me to meet their 20-something neice and showed me a picture of her, which may have been a stock photo.
There is an impatient third woman waiting by the mall door they claim to be their friend. The women offer to drive me to their home. I ask where. They claim it is close but can't show me on the map because they have no phone data. So we use my phone data. One of the women aimlessly scrolls all over Google Maps and finally picks a spot and claims it is their home, of which they couldn't name the residence or street at first. I view the street view, and it is in some sketchy random alley away from the tourist spots just out of walking distance.
I decline and ask for their WhatsApp. They give it, I scan their QR, and the lady gets my pop-up message. But wait, I thought they had no data?! The lady claims it is the free wifi. Um, but I see her wifi is turned off and it is clearly her 5G data, all five bars shown on her phone. Then she claims she has "free data" whatever that means. Also, there is no pic on her WhatsApp profile. I leave and walk back to my hotel safely, meeting my tardy Tinder date later at a bar. The older women ignored my later messages until I admitted I suspected a kidnapping/robbery scam. One lady replies, appearing to be shocked. Then she blocks me.
Keep your head on a swivel, folks. Scams are everywhere.
Edit: Rather than respond to each individual comment, I will make these remarks: This is a true story. I entertained the old ladies because they were friendly, we were in public at the mall, and I had nothing else to do while waiting on a Tinder date. I was also "thinking with the wrong head" in that there may really be a young 20-something Filipina girl for me (I am a guy in the Philippines, the more girls the better, what can I say). The red flags went off when they were too eager to get me in their car, couldn't give me the house location, lied about not having phone data, and their photoless, unresponsive WhatsApp account. According to Reddit, this set-up has been pulled on others in various countries.