Forewarned is forearmed

OGIE Alcasid (left) hosts “Let’s Ask Pilipinas” on TV 5. FACEBOOK PHOTO

The weekly “lists” show, “Ang Pinaka,” is on a roll. Some time back, we wrote appreciative notes on its focus on “selfies,” which we found much more interesting and intrepid than the show’s usual “food trips.”

Last month, “Ang Pinaka” regaled us with another intrepid and insightful show, this time on currently prevalent scams. Watching it was like getting a crash course on what crafty and nefarious schemes we should watch out for these days, so that the usual suspects won’t succeed in their evil efforts to rob us blind when we let our guard down.

Well-researched

It’s instructive to note that schemes and scammers have become “trendy” in keeping with the times, and that many of their nefarious plots make use of the Internet and the new media to pull the wool over our collective eyes.

The program’s well-researched list of currently “popular” scams included spurious notice about bargains, auctions and other “money-saving opportunities”— which turn out to be clever attempts to part the clueless from their hard-earned cash.

Another scam on the list generously offered the gullible respondents an “easy” P1,000—if they bit the proffered bait!

At the other end of the “cash gift” situation was the promised bonanza of hundreds of thousands of pesos (!), ostensibly and spuriously from a “foundation,” if the ecstatic respondent and “lucky recipient” would comply with some “easy requirement.” Other schemes were less extravagant and merely involved “pasa loads,” but they were scams, all the same.

Other spurious bonanzas revolved around pyramiding schemes, “easy” Wi-Fi connections, ATM credit, travel bargaining—even the latest version of the undying “dugo-dugo” hoax, which still works with the particularly clueless and stupid, even after being exposed many years ago!

“Ang Pinaka” should be encouraged to come up with helpful lists like these, which make for much more interesting and helpful viewing than yet another compilation of restaurants that tests the outer limits of gluttony.

Lighthearted

Other TV shows that both entertain and teach include “Let’s Ask Pilipinas” with Ogie Alcasid, “Pop Talk,” “Tatak Pinoy,” “I Juander” and some telecasts hosted by Julius Babao, Miriam Quiambao and Arnold Clavio.

Ogie’s show surveys current Filipinoy preferences, and its findings tell us a lot about how the average Filipino’s mind and heart work—and what they prefer. Similarly, the other shows we’ve cited use a lighthearted tone but convey some significant information viewers can arrive at some “very Pinoy” insights with, or delve into how criminal minds dubiously work. If this is what they mean by “infotainment,” the new trend in TV programming could be on its easy breezy way to popular acceptance—and success!