Hi everyone,

I am writing this on behalf of my mother, who is currently going through one of the hardest times of her life.

For almost a year, she has been fighting an incredibly stressful uphill battle to clear her debts and escape a crisis with predatory Online Lending Apps (OLAs). She worked tirelessly, sacrificed so much, and was finally almost finished paying them off. She was just on the cusp of recovering and finally breathing easy.

But just as she was about to get back on her feet, she was targeted by a highly sophisticated online scam.

The scammers manipulated her into a corner. After taking her initial money, they told her that she needed to pay a "deposit requirement" in order to withdraw her funds. Desperate to get her money back and finish her OLA recovery, she did what many of us would do in a panic: she borrowed money from different people—including close, trusted friends who believed in her.

In the end, the scammers took everything, amounting to over ₱300,000.

The money is completely gone, and we have been told by the authorities that there is no way to recover it. Now, my mom is not only dealing with the devastating loss of her own savings, but she is also carrying the crushing weight of having let down her trusted friends. Those friends are now understandably looking to get their money back, and she has no way to pay them.

The emotional toll this is taking on her is unbearable. She feels like she has ruined her relationships and her hard-earned recovery in an instant.

We are not asking to recover the entire amount, but we are desperately seeking any help we can get to ease this sudden, heavy crisis. The funds raised here will go directly toward helping her repay the friends she borrowed from and cover basic survival expenses as we try to navigate this nightmare.

To show that this is a real and urgent situation, we are more than willing to share redacted copies of our police/cybercrime report to anyone who wishes to verify our story.

Any amount, no matter how small, or even just sharing this link with others, would mean the world to us. Thank you so much for your kindness, your empathy, and for helping my mom realize she doesn't have to carry this heavy weight alone.