It’s like a Netflix show that has come to life: authorities arrested a woman who tricked victims into funding millions of pesos into her styling business.
Police arrested 26-year-old Mikaela Veronica Cabrera on Friday at a condominium she was residing in at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City, following a warrant of arrest issued by the Makati Municipal Trial Court.
Reports said that most of her victims comprised men she had met on dating apps. She would convince them to help fund her ailing business, a styling company called AUMA Fashion Styling Firm, but would disappear just as when she was due to pay them back.
Cabrera’s years of scamming came to an end after a real estate agent uncovered her identity while trying to close a deal with the suspect.
The agent said that Cabrera was a potential lessee of their client and tried to settle her payment through a check — which bounced. When the agent called the bank to clarify the matter, she was informed that the account was already closed.
This raised suspicion with the agent, who decided to do some digging on Cabrera — and found a Facebook page dedicated to her, which read “Mikaela Veronica Sese Cabrera A Scammer.”
The agent got in touch with the page administrator, who disclosed that Cabrera supposedly owed him PHP10 million (US$181,141) while he knew another guy who was owed PHP6 million (US$110,485).
The agent then went to the Taguig City police station, where they set up an entrapment operation.
Cabrera is now detained at a substation of the Taguig City Police and faces charges of violating the Anti-Bouncing Check Law.
