The president of the South EastMan Filipino Association says they are keeping an eye on a potential scam that is shedding a bad light on their community. 

Greg Carlos says there have been reports of people going door to door in the Southeast selling goods at inflated prices. 

He notes they are “Telling different kinds of stories, like typhoons or fundraising for basketball leagues and I've heard from the report that they even told them that it's for their family in the Philippines.” 

Carlos says most recently, he has heard that these people have been seen in the Blumenort area selling chocolate bars from Ikea for $10 apiece. He notes these people are not from the southeast region and are certainly not working for local Filipino groups. 

“On behalf of the Southeast Manitoba Filipino Association, and of course, the Prairie Basketball League, we would like to inform you guys that we as associations do not sell any products or chocolates to fund our programs. We have sponsors to help us to achieve these programs.” 

Unfortunately, Carlos says this has the potential to hurt the local Filipino community. 

“This is very crucial right now because we are getting more Filipinos than ever each year. [These potential scammers] are representing all Filipinos right now in a bad way. So, we don't want that.” He adds “Many Filipinos here in Southeast, we have two to three jobs just to support our family here and of course in the Philippines, and this is not appropriate.” 

This is not the first time this has come up. Carlos says very similar reports surfaced last year and they have been in communication with Filipino associations in Winnipeg who are dealing with the same issue. 

“Last year we found out that these people are actually doing this internationally. We don't have any idea what kind of groups they belong to. So, we are very careful about dealing with them.” 

Carlos adds “We would like you to be careful and if you find they are very aggressive, please report them to RCMP.” 

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