John JonasOwner, OnlineJobs.ph · Scale Your Business with Filipino VAs

Filipinos asking you to prepay for work is a RED FLAG #ytshorts

21 Jun 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:39

In this YouTube short, the speaker warns viewers that any request for prepaid payment from a worker in the Philippines should be treated as a major red flag, as it almost always indicates a scam. He explains that such requests—whether for an upfront fee, laptop repair, or utility bills—are typically fraudulent. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience since 2005, he notes that he has encountered this pattern dozens of times, underscoring its rarity but persistent presence. The overall message is a cautionary advisory to avoid sending money before work is completed.

Chapters

Someone in the Philippines should not be asking to get prepaid for work that they're doing. And to me, this is a huge red flag. Almost every single time I've ever seen someone ask for money upfront, whether it be, can you prepay me? Or my laptop is broken, or I have an electricity problem, can you pay my utilities or whatever it is, if they're asking for money before they've worked, it's like almost every single time, it's a scam. Now, I've been doing this since 2005. That makes almost 20 years now. And I've seen this a dozen times, which tells you how seldom this is happening, but it's definitely still happening.