Immigration recruiters are licensed professionals. Without a license you cannot recruit at all. As simple as that.
Naomi Ong has no license, but she has been recruiting people to come to Canada. She succeeded in bringing over artists, band, to perform here in Toronto, but they have yet to be paid.
Included in one band was her mother and her special son, who were tagged along as band Manager and staff respectively. After arriving in Toronto, like the other band members, things did not go as planned with them as well.
Now, Naomi’s aunt, Evelyn Patosalme who lives in Finland, said in an email that Naomi maltreated the mother and son. In one of their fights, a raging Naomi kicked them out of the house in a cold night. It was a relative in LA that the mother was able to reach out who was able to help them, booked them in a hotel, and paid for their return tickets to go home.
Evelyn said that the mother and Naomi’s son are safely back in the Philippines. Did Naomi bother to check up on them after? “Not a peep. Now they are happier and more at peace away from Naomi,” added Evelyn.
Evelyn went on to expose how Naomi had borrowed money from a lot of trusting people from Saudi Arabia and Finland, only to run away from them after. With plenty of money to spend Naomi managed to hide and ply her borrowing schemes on more unsuspecting people, until one reported her, and she got deported to the Philippines.
An artist Herber Bartolome claims that as an entertainer, he is well-known back home. They were invited by Naomi and Roxlee Ong for a gig in Toronto. Bartolome and company were accommodated in Naomi and Roxlee’s home where they were left to fend for themselves. Clearly, they were hung up to dry in a place where they knew not where to go for help.
Bartolome said that he ended up exhausting his own funds, buying groceries, just to eat as the refrigerator was empty. “What hurts is there is absolutely no chance they will ever recover any penny from the Ongs,” he said.
Another victim in this artist scheme who agreed to tell his story is Dinky Doo. He was also conned for money by Naomi and Roxlee Ong for gigs in Toronto and other places but were not paid.
He had to depend on crowdsourcing, organized by good-hearted and well-meaning kababayans for funds to sustain him and until he had enough to pay for a flight ticket to go home.
Balita was invited to one such fund-raising event held in a restaurant at Bathurst and Wilson. It is noteworthy that there are still many more generous and compassionate community members willing to open their hearts and wallets to help down-trodden victims.
One restaurant owner caught up in this artist scheme reached out to Balita from Edmonton. Alberta. Bayani Alcantara was presented by Naomi Ong with such an attractive project hosting gigs in his
restaurant fronting popular artists from the Philippines. He said he fell for the opportunity to market his own business while at the same time helping promote talents from his homeland.
Naomi asked him for the usual goodwill down payment and plans were drawn up for the scheduled appearances, ticket sales and stage preparations. Only that after completing initial payments for his share of the deal. Naomi was not able to comply for reasons she only knows. Since tickets had been sold, Bayani realized he was duped, and ended up refunding those tickets to his fellow Edmontonians.
Bayani’s dream went up in smoke, his investment gone, and his pride deflated and disappointed. Tried as much as he can to reach Naomi but with no luck. He is wishing that justice or karma will be done on Naomi, whichever comes first. And he wonders how many more victims of Naomi like him have fallen on the wayside.
As of this writing Balita has received many more complaints of being swindled or were tried to be swindled by Naomi Ong, as a result of our exposes and coverage. We know that aside from what we already have in our files, there are more victims out there crying in their misery and nursing their hurt at why they fell victim in the first place.
We also know that there are 47 cases on file that an investigator is working on, with practically the same testimonies or modus operandi that Naomi Ong follows, that one victim, Mae Bentia, is helping coordinate.
With stern warning, Mae Bentia says that Naomi Ong will show up in a new place, posturing as a prosperous, charming and influential somebody to gain trust from unsuspecting kababayans.
Her ploy is easy immigration to Canada as evidenced in the testimonies on hand. But know that she is not a licensed recruiter. She occasionally uses the Philippine Consulate in Toronto as a front to make her look legit, referring to their programs or connections there. So, in places where news of her swindling activities has not been heard, of course she usually hooks a gullible victim.
What to be aware of is Naomi’s sweet-talking. We Filipinos are known to be so friendly, polite and accommodating to fellow kababayans.
Out of our goodness we often say “once or twice is fine”, so we are ok to lend money to help someobdy who has the need, but if it becomes habitual to different people with the same disappearing tactics, then that is a clear case of swindling.
Balita continues to urge you to build up the courage and do what is right. You are now in Canada where the police and justice systems are highly dependable and trusted.
Only by being bold and strong in your spirit will you get justice. It will also help stop swindlers from victimizing more of our kababayans. With more of you going to the police, the sooner will they be caught and locked in jail.
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Meanwhile, another notorious alleged scammer is Liwayway Miranda Hammer who up to this time is still hunted by victims to serve court documents.
Liwayway was branded as the summa cum laude of scammers in Toronto according to paralegal, soon to be a practicing lawyer Jun Saludares.
Saludares won several of the court cases against Liwayway and they are just waiting for courts to open to collect judgements.
Saludares is one of the defamation victims of Lily Hammer together with Chito Collantes of CWSS and Balita newspaper.
If Naomi has 47 victims’ testimonies on hand, Lily Hammer has hundreds and we now lost counts and are still coming. We calculated millions of dollars collected from applicants all over the world and are now asking for refunds and to get justice.
This is a clear case of greed as farmers would ask for 20 people to employ. Recruitment then would be opened around the world. So, the 20 with a certified LMIA arrived here but the others were just taken for a ride.
Victim applicants paid but nothing was done. and all they got were promises and then later, they would be blocked and no more communication with Hammer.
These are the common complaints that were narrated to Balita and the advocates. With victims’ monies borrowed from different sources, they are now crying for help on how to get them back.
Authorities, investigators, government agencies, lawyers are all working together to obtain justice for these poor victims.
Let us not allow our guards down.
Beware mga kababayan. ****
We would like to reiterate our warning to be careful and not to fall for scamming and swindling that are going on in our community. This couple in the news was reported to have moved to Niagara Falls, although the police are aware of it, we are still issuing the warning and the request to notify your friends and relatives about their activities while in London, Ontario and then Toronto. Please be very careful not to fall for their schemes. Cases were filed and cases will be heard as soon as pandemic will allow. We know that some Pinoys are alert as a foreigner husband of a Pinay was the one that reported their whereabouts to the victims.