QUEZON CITY, (PIA) -- The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is warning the public against scammers who pose as agency officials or employees and demand payment for taxes or other fees using virtual wallet applications such as GCash or bank transfer.

The BOC clarified that they do not collect custom duties and taxes using personal accounts and even through remittance centers.

"BOC officials, including the BOC Customer Assistance and Response Services, do not directly communicate with parcel recipients via phone call, text message, or email to inform them or ask them to pay via bank deposit or money transfer for parcels to be released," according to the BOC statement.

This was after a fake letter with the BOC logo was discovered. It is addressed to Yannahsher's Office Supplies dated December 4, 2022, charging a fee for tax and fees (processing, branding and clearance/documents/file compilation) amounting to P128,585.45.

But it is still suspicious that they want to pass the payment through GCash of bank transfer to release 35 laptop computers for such a company.

The letter, which is said to be a certified true copy, was signed by Raquel de Jesus of the BOC-Central Records Management Division and former commissioner Rey Guerrero. (PIA-NCR)