No franchising scams have been reported in Central Visayas, but the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) yesterday urged overseas Filipino workers to exercise due diligence before acquiring any franchise.
“We know that OFWs would like to franchise because it is easily accessible to them,” said DTI 7 regional director Asteria Caberte.
A separate advisory from DTI warned against online fraud and advised consumers to electronically transact only with legitimate businesses.
The advisories were issued as part of the department’s consumer awareness and education campaign.
Caberte said the “early warning” on possible bogus franchises does not indicate that there are cases of OFWs or their relatives being scammed.
So far, she said they have not received any complaint nor has she heard of similar concerns in other DTI regional offices.
“Maybe there have been cases in the past but so far, we have heard none for Central Visayas,” she added.
In its advisory, the DTI listed measures that consumers should take before going into franchising, namely: validating whether the franchisor is registered with DTI or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a member of any franchisor association, and has no pending legal or criminal cases.
The department also urged OFWs to ask for contact details of existing franchisees, marketing materials and concrete business concept.
“This is DTI´s way of upgrading on our consumer awareness, and also to protect our consumers from franchising scams,” Caberte said.
The department also warned against online fraud, which may be in the form of fake websites, online auction scams, weight loss medicine scams, and phishing emails.
Online fraud is punishable under the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
In a statement, DTI said fake websites mimic a genuine reputable online business by using a very similar website address or pretending to be a legitimate business with the sole purpose of defrauding unsuspecting shoppers.
Online auction scams receive goods that are counterfeit or significantly differ from the original description and are of lesser value or there are no goods delivered.
Weight loss medicine scams offer alternative slimming aids or medicines which have not been tested and are harmful.
Phishing emails purportedly come from legitimate and well-known sources which contain a link to a false but credible-looking website, where the victim will be asked to update their personal or account information.
“Consumers (should) think twice before spending their hard-earned money,” the DTI said in its advisory.