ISANG BABAE NABIKTIMA NG ISANG MODUS AT DAPAT MO ITONG MALAMAN DAHIL MAARING IKAW DIN AY MABIKTIMA!

As Christmas is fast approaching, people are now starting to experience the Christmas season shopping rush. Malls are more crowded, shoppers are panic-buying, and tiangges or bazaars are filled to the brim. Divisoria, however, is an entirely different story. It has always had its own reputation for being the place to be when shopping for Christmas gifts.

The best deals, according to veteran shoppers, can always be found in this place. This makes it extremely crowded during the holidays, with people easily getting careless as everyone is in a rush. This also makes shoppers easy targets not only for pickpockets and robbers, but also for various scams.

A woman named Ageygey Hadjiphanis was victimized by the “singkwenty” modus when she went shopping in Divisoria. She then reported this incident to YouScoop, GMA News’s platform for news coming from the people themselves. According to YouScoop, Hadjiphanis did not notice that she was given a “singkwenty” — a 20-peso bill made to look like a 50-peso bill — as change when she went shopping in Divisoria. It was only upon closer inspection that she noticed that the bill was merely dyed red, and that the number “2” in “20” was replaced with a “5” to make it look like “50”.

A “singkwenty“, or a hybrid of a 20-peso and 50-peso bill, has had its photos making rounds online for quite some time now. These were of course photoshopped, while some were manually written on for fun. However, ignorance of the law is not an excuse. As per Presidential Decree No. 247, it is “unlawful for any person to willfully deface, mutilate, tear, burn or destroy, in any manner whatsoever, currency notes and coins issued by the Central Bank of the Philippines.”

This means that tampering with currency notes and coins, whether it be to scam people or merely done just for fun, is illegal and punishable by law. Despite this, some people are still able to get away with doing it because of the relatively small value of a 50-peso bill. Unlike 500-peso and 1000-peso bills which are always carefully checked by cashiers and consumers alike, smaller bills such as 20s and 50s are usually not inspected.

Hadjiphanis then reminded the public to be more mindful not just of their belongings but also of their money especially when shopping for the holidays.