An online gaming shop lost P50,000 after being duped by a man who introduced himself as a friend of the establishment’s owner.

Chief Inspector Benjamin Elenzano, deputy chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD-CIDU), said the suspect was able to get the money by fooling the employees of the JMUL EGames located the DMWAI Building E. Rodriguez Avenue, Barangay Manuel.

Elenzano said they have not yet identified the male suspect who only introduced himself as a friend of Jose Mari Uy, 39, owner of the establishment which is a Pagcor-authorized online gambling place.

According to employees, the suspect entered the establishment at 2:30 p.m. Saturday posing as a customer to play online games. At that time, there were three employees manning the cash registry - Izza Cerenado, Victoria Lorenzo, and May-Yen Abano.

After a while, the suspect approached the cash registry and asked to use the telephone.

In front of the employees, the suspect pretended that he was talking with Uy over the phone. After putting down the phone, he asked Cerenado and Lorenzo to buy pizza and the two employees did so after believing that the suspect was a friend of their employer.

After Cerenado and Lorenzo left, the suspect then told Abano that Uy gave instructions to give P50,000 to him. Thinking that the suspect did talk to the owner, Abano took the P50,000 from the cash registry and gave it to the suspect who quickly left the establishment.