(Editor’s note: Victim requested anonymity in exchange for baring her story.)

SOMEWHERE IN LUZON ISLAND–OVERSEAS worker’s wife Virginia Recuerda’s mind wanders to a Citibank check in her drawer every time a television show on scams began airing at Channel 11 recently.

That check for US$3,000 and the show remind her of how trust in other people could lead to financial disaster.

MANILA-AMPARO Munariz and her seafarer husband have been members of a cooperative for nearly two decades now and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Savings and investment groups like the Magsaysay Employees, Crew and Alottees Developmental Cooperative (Mecadec) that Munariz belong to have given seafarers an alternative to banks for borrowing and growing their money.

MANDALUYONG CITY–PSEUDO-INVESTMENT schemes such as Ponzi and pyramiding do not only promise quick cash to ordinary investors, but also rake in millions to billions of pesos for operators.

Ponzi scheme operators, explains lawyer Lalaine Monserate of the Securities and Exchange Commission, pay exceptional returns to investors coming from the deposits of “a growing number of investors.”

CALOOCAN CITY-–FORMER overseas Filipino workers trying their hands in business are discovering the cold truth of the market: rules are unforgiving to those unprepared.

While social enterprise advocates say the shock is due to lack of skills and training in entrepreneurship, former OFWs with businesses believe “luck” has something to do with it.