A foreigner's wife lost P60,000 worth in jewelries, cash and cell phone the other day in a sting operations known in swindling lingo as budol-budol or double--your-- money scheme. Evageline Hoffman, 36, of Songculan, Dauis town even went to the extent of going home just to get the P60,000 worth of personal belongings in order to heed the demand of the swindlers. The foreigner's wife said she was brought inside an unnumbered Starex van along F. Rocha St. where the transaction took place. She believed she was hypnotized because she appeared to have fallen under the spell of the con artists. According to police investigators, the victim was the 50th in a series of operations involving a budol-budol gang.

In the case of the latest caper, Ms. Hoffman said she just came out of the Fil-Can Training Center along CPG Avenue in front of the Aldea Photo Center . She is a student of the caregiver school. Once outside, she was met by a chinky-eyed woman who introduced as a wife of another foreigner—a Norwegian. Without her knowing it, they were joined by a group of four persons—three men and another woman at the waiting van. While there, the usual “sales talk” began with one of the men telling the wife that they wanted to buy fire extinguishers.

In an apparent effort to guarantee the transaction that there was something in the form of commission if the prospective victim can pinpoint the right dealer, the gang showed to Ms. Hoffman a bag full of money. Another also showed his fat wallet, an indication that he, too, was “loaded”. For the victim, it was a perfect day in the life of a “care giving student”. Losing no time, she went home to get her jewelries and cash worth P3,000 thinking of the commission she would get in the fire extinguisher deal. After all is said and done, it was too late for Ms. Hoffman to learn that she was another cold statistic of the growing number of budol-budol scam victims.