Mall guards arrest woman for using fake credit cards

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — A 30-year-old woman was apprehended Wednesday at a shopping mall, this city, after she allegedly used a fake credit card to buy more than P100,000 worth of gadgets.

Police identified the suspect as Teresa Pasadas, a resident of Binan, Laguna and Ayala-Alabang and Muntinlupa City, all in Manila, who was arrested by the security guards of SM City Mall-Bacolod when she tried to escape after the store discovered the credit card she used was counterfeit.

Pasadas used a Standard Chartered Platinum VISA Card and an HSBC VISA Card to purchase an iPhone 5S worth P30,490 and an iPad Mini Wifi worth P16,990, police records showed.

The Standard Chartered card was declined while the HSBC was approved by the BDO Terminal, however, a staff from the BDO main office called the iStore and declared that the credit cards used by the suspect were fictitious and void.

The same incident happened minutes earlier at PO’s Digital, when Pasadas—using a SC Visa card and a Metrobank Visa card—bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 worth P37,990 and a Samsung Galaxy S5 worth P31,990.

Recovered from Pasadas were the iPhone and iPad Mini gadgets, as well as various credit and ATM cards from different banks, a driver’s license, and assorted identification cards.

Pasadas is now detained at Police Station 1. —Marchel P. Espina (FREEMAN)