A Facebook user shared of encountering a kid asking for alms on the streets of Manila who presented them with a printed QR code.
Angelo Gabriel Fuentabella shared that a boy approached him and his friend while they were hanging out on the street in Sampaloc.
The boy was begging for alms but when they told him that they did not have any coins or spare change with them, the boy presented a huge GCash QR code with the text, “Scan to Pay.”
Angelo reportedly shared a picture of the encounter on the social networking platform. He wrote the following as caption:
Us: Sorry, wala kaming barya :(( [crying emoticon]
Bata: Okay lang po, dito na lang po
The post was eventually reported by some news outlets and other Facebook pages like the “Klasik Titos and Titas of Manila,” where it has amassed 150,000 pure laughing reactions and over 19,000 shares.
As of writing, the post is no longer publicly available on Angelo’s Facebook account although he shared the post of “Klasik Titos and Titas of Manila” with this quip:
Bata: *biglang naglabas ng iPhone para i-check kung pumasok ‘yung pera* (2)
“Honestly, nagulat at natawa lang kami kasi parang ang bilis ng mga pangyayari,” Angelo told PhilSTAR Life.
“Pagkasabi naming wala kaming barya, bigla siyang naglabas ng board na ‘yan na may QR code,” he said, referring to the blue board seen on the picture.
Angelo said that they refused to give the child money as they found the board suspicious.
“Medyo sketchy kasi baka mapunta lang naman sa iba ‘yung ibibigay namin,” he recalled.
Last month, volleyball player Michele Gumabao encountered a similar incident in Singapore.
“May [nanglimos] dito sa SG [Singapore], sabi ko, sorry, no cash. Pinakitaan ako ng barcode,” she tweeted with a fearful face emoji before.
Actress Iwa Moto also encountered kids who claimed to accept cash through an e-wallet when she visited a shop in their village last year.
RELATED: ‘Palimos via Gcash?’: Iwa Moto gets surprised by children asking for e-money
Cashless transactions have become popular especially at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in a bid to reduce physical contact as preventive measures against the virus’ transmission.
It should be noted, however, that the virus causing COVID-19 is primarily airborne and mainly gets transmitted by droplets and aerosols.
Surface transmission may only happen when a person touches a surface that an infected individual has sneezed or coughed on and is not sanitized.
