Background
The RINJ Foundation operates skills retention training programs free for our leaders and volunteers as part of a PTSD debriefing and learning experience for workers who have served in high-stress war zone situations programs.
An article by Sharon Santiago working with humanitarian teams in the Philippines and Behar Abbasi working with humanitarian teams in Tehran, Iran.
Women and girls learn to use power tools, glue guns, hand tools and perform small construction jobs; install their solar panels; learn about sustainable energy and more. They also learn how to build bird houses from tongue depressors and how to understand even connect with a range of pets and and even wildlife creatures in their habitat.
There are many diversions from PTRS and PTSD that help survivors of these disorders get these sisters’ lives back under their control to resume a happy, productive path forward.
A one month PTRS and PTSD on-demand program is offered to members of the Public in the Philippines three times a year.
A similar program is available free for evaluated and accepted candidate women and girl members of the general public who have experienced PTRS and PTSD which are disorders that result from extreme emotional and/or physical traumas.
Those candidates who need to be escalated to a medical path for mental health are given that referral and deferred until the next class. If untreated, these impactful issues often lead to anxiety, prolonged depression, physical symptoms and disorders, and even suicide.
PTRS and PTSD may be epidemic in the Philippines for a number of reasons. Rape, other forms of gender based violence, an HIV epidemic, late detected breast cancer also at epidemic levels, massive poverty, and the terrible and pervasive affordability crisis have all stressed women and girls in the Philippines to a dangerous level.
The load on women and girls in the Philippines is so overwhelming that overburdened and overwhelmed mothers are selling young daughters into a life of slavery in a country where with a large migrant population, men are exploited in fishing, construction, and farming jobs. Whereas, women are exploited in more domestic and caretaker roles. Children are exploited for sex and child labor trafficking according to Wikipedia.
RINJ Women dig into Lazada and Other Shopping Scams exploiting Philippines Vulnerable. Illustration by RosaSays/DeviantArt. All Illustrations, Art, Cropping, Enhancement as needed to format: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine. Rosa takes ownership of her work by virtue of her artistic endeavour and intellectual rights. All rights reserved.
One of our lessons has exposed a vulnerability and exploit we promised to attend. Fraud against the people of the Philippines.
We will leave the government’s fraud against the people for another discussion.
Our sister trainees on a path to anxiety free life are asked to write down any events that have upset them in recent times since their PTRS or PTSD trauma.
The process involves explaining their recent stressful event and then explain how they dealt with the unfortunate stimuli and the group also responds with their ideas for solutions if that is OK with the presenter. It is surprising in the past year how many times the name Lazada has come up as a source of anger, frustration and anxiety.>
ASEAN countries
Among some of the constant complaints received by volunteers in the Philippines’ RINJ Foundation Nurses Training Center is the lack of public transportation and good regional shopping opportunities in ‘the provinces’ far outside major cities where much of the 45 million poor live.
Women in the ‘provinces’ do their shopping online, even for non-perishable groceries. But the delivery services are brutal on the packages—devastatingly brutal.
The perils of buying groceries online. Photo given to RINJ Women workers submitted by Lazada shopper.
Other issues reported widely include complaints received by The RINJ Foundation during these stressful times of war and affordability crises.
Tampered Parcels: Consumers have reported instances in which delivered packages contained no merchandise, stones, or inferior substitute items in place of the originally purchased product. An example of this is computer parts like very expensive NVME tiny “hard drives” shipped in brown envelopes that arrive empty.
Fake Sellers: Sellers using misleading pictures e.g., Selling a Toshiba kettle that arrives as a cheap bashed up product named “Slivers Criest”. Another example is Xiaomi selling G27 200Hz Gaming computer monitors that arrive as something else and a long series of failed refunds and missing refunds. After contacting Xiaomi The RINJ Foundation Philippines was told that Xiaomi was not responsible for its selling and distribution departments and that RINJ Women should contact Lazada which was done. The outcome is learning that that thousands of users of the platform experienced this issue.
Advertised as a Toshiba Kettle this Flimsy “Slivers Criest” Kettle arrived bashed in on all sides but should be round with no sides. Photo and labelling by Rosa Yamamoto. Art Director FPM.news
In the Philippines, the certification of electrical tools, appliances, and materials is mandatory for products that affect health, safety, and the environment. This process is managed by the Department of Trade and Industry–Bureau of Philippine Standards (DTI-BPS). The above item is not certified.
This Xiaomi Monitor is an example of Return Rejection Scams
and was for the use of caregivers looking at X-rays at the clinic in the nurses training center near Baguio City.
“Return Rejection” Scams: Some sellers or their associates at Lazada have been reported to exploit logistics discrepancies, leading to the unjust rejection of return requests for fraudulent or wrongly-sent items—even when customers provide clear evidence. As a result, affected customers may lose both the product and their payment.
Task/Job Scams: Fraudsters using Lazada’s name to offer fake tasks via Telegram/Viber.
Non-Delivery: Packages marked as delivered but never received.
Fake COD Parcels: Scammers deliver fake or low-value items (like face masks or cheap items) to victims, demanding cash on delivery, often at a price of around 1,400+ pesos.
“Inside Job” Indicators: Victims often report that the scammers, including return case evaluators, sometimes the courier drivers, already know the victim’s name, address, and phone number and have a scam prepared.
RINJ Women dig into Lazada and Other Shopping Scams exploiting Philippines Vulnerable. Illustration by RosaSays/DeviantArt. All Illustrations, Art, Cropping, Enhancement as needed to format: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine. Rosa takes ownership of her work by virtue of her artistic endeavour and intellectual rights. All rights reserved.
The Failed Return Scam—The Buyer loses everything, usually high-ticket items.
Failed Return/Refund Process: E-commerce platforms like Lazada sometimes have difficult or faked return processes, leading to users being unable to get refunds for faulty or wrong items the buyer was asked to send back, or unfulfilled orders. Usually this applies to high-ticket items like Xiaomi Computer Monitors or fake Kingston NVME storage drives (see both below).
Users have reported that even after a “refund issued” request and status with Lazada, no money is returned to their digital wallet and they never get their purchased product back.
If they have an approved real Credit Card from Visa or Mastercard, American Express or other the victim can force-process a chargeback after jumping through hoops and red tape.
Most purchases in the Philippines are done with virtual credit cards or gift cards and the money is never recovered according to the women and girls plus their bank staffs who have made their complaints known to The RINJ Foundation.
Return Rejection Tactics: Sellers and sometimes the Lazada platform will reject return requests if the buyer fails to voluntarily provide a video of the package being opened but they won’t ask for it and will claim after the 7-day expiry that this or that was never supplied by the buyer on time. By then the buyer has lost their money and the product both of which the seller now has with a stipend paid to their insider.
Courier Scam Collaboration: Some reports suggest that courier staff may work with scammers to deliver fake packages, with the sender’s address often listed as undecipherable. At least one complaint suggests that the entire Lazada experience is a borderline scam.
In the Philippines, the certification of electrical tools, appliances, and materials is mandatory for products that affect health, safety, and the environment. This process is managed by the Department of Trade and Industry–Bureau of Philippine Standards (DTI-BPS).
This is a deliberate deception. A smart customer looks for a brand name, hence the seller has removed an image from a well known chain store known as National Book Store which sells a wide range of learning and hobby tools, especially books.
This example of many fraudulent scams, the REAL Dolphin Glue Guns protect the user with solid front seals which protect users’ hands from being badly burned.
Burns from, molten glue can be level-three serious burns that damage subcutaneous tissue.
Cheap imitations do not afford this protection as well as do better brands. Even the budget priced Mitsushi devices are rock solid on the safety side except they could use a better line chord. Frayed line chords can kill the user who is working in areas when one hand is grounded and the other hand receives an electrical shock from the device. Always wear thick work gloves that cover the wrist and are insulated from electrical shock.
This “Fake Dolphin Brand” has a flimsy electrical chord. It is not marked as certified for use in the Philippines or anywhere in SouthEast Asia for that matter.
RINJ Women dig into Lazada and Other Shopping Scams exploiting Philippines Vulnerable. Illustration by RosaSays/DeviantArt. All Illustrations, Art, Cropping, Enhancement as needed to format: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine. Rosa takes ownership of her work by virtue of her artistic endeavour and intellectual rights. All rights reserved.
While there is no specific data point for the exact amount defrauded through counterfeit Kingston products on Lazada alone, broader reports highlight the massive scale of the issue in the Philippines:
Total Counterfeit Seizures: In 2024, Philippine authorities seized a record ₱40.99 billion worth of counterfeit goods. For the period of January to November 2025, seizures totaled ₱29.2 billion.
Electronic Goods Impact: Gadgets and electronics, which include computer parts like SSDs and NVMEs, represent approximately 2.8% of reported intellectual property violations.
Common Counterfeit Kingston Scams on Lazada According to Google AI Search results
Buyers have reported specific red flags and fraud methods for Kingston computer parts:
Fake Storage Capacity: Drives that report a high capacity (e.g., 500GB or 1TB) but contain much smaller chips (e.g., 16GB), leading to data corruption once the real limit is hit.
Poor Performance: Counterfeit SSDs often show drastically lower write speeds (e.g., 80MBps instead of the rated 550MBps).
Detection Failures: Authentic Kingston SSD Manager software typically fails to recognize fake drives or causes system crashes.
Physical Signs: Fakes may arrive in carton boxes rather than plastic clamshells, have blurry labels, or use incorrect colors (e.g., black instead of graphite).
Here are some evaluated samples by our volunteer techicians
These items below are all counterfeit frauds sold on the Lazada platform.
You can click any image to enlarge.
What can users do to protect themselves
Buy only from certified branded sellers on Lazada mostly they are awesome.
Make an immediate report by telephone to Lazada’s call Centers if encountering problems.
Remember that in the Philippines, you must put your country amnd its people first.
Shopee and Amazon are better choices of online shopping platforms in the Philippines based on the number of complaints and the success rate of solutions.
We say that because we have not tested Temu and others, but we have placed scores of orders for supplies for our operations in the Philippines and for our care requesters and their children to the extent of hundreds of thousands of Canadian dollars. (We are a Canada-based international organization in Special Consultative Status to the United Nations.)
We can freely state that our experiences with Shopee and Amazon have been 100% problems-solved. In the case of Lazada, it is occasionally a fraud-scam nightmare.
Yes there have been the occasional scammer on Shopee but these two platforms, Amazon and Shopee in the Philippines deal with issues pronto and get customers a fair and fast solution. Be straight and transparent and you’ll get a fair shake as others do. Let us know if your experience has been something different.
There’s another factor. Many of the shops on Lazada are money laundering scams related to fraudulent government contracts. We’ll be explaining that in a forthcoming article here.
Check your local stores before you buy online. Neighbourhood stores in the Philippines, are run by your neighbours.
Lazada has become a massive perpetuator of crime against consumers in the Philippines.
That will get worse as the Philippines’ and United States’ Governments turn our country into a severe enemy of China.
Right now the United States with the full consent of the Philippines President Marcos is building up massive missile and other attack facilities in the Philippines for the purpose of going to war with the People’s Republic of China, a former very good friend of PH. Many of this information is kept from the public in the Philippines.
Take this warning seriously. Visit the al Jazeera web Site and learn more.
Preparations including evacuation of women and children are needed in the Philippines where American Forces occupy military bases and plan to make war against China.
Video: This year America has restricted its more aggressive coverage of U.S. Forces preparing to fight China from the Philippines but in 2022 it was obvious what was happening.
Video cover, 25 April 2023, by U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Tyler Andrews. Film shot 03.31.202 by Cpl. Joshua Brittenham during Exercise Balikatan.
RSAC Nurse Karinna Angeles speaking to a crew of nurses said, “You add up what you have been through, the mass murders by the government and the death squads, the pandemic for which families had little to no help, the American war in Ukraine, the continuing American and Israeli war against the people of Lebanon, West Bank, Iran and Yemen, the Gaza Genocide, the killing of journalists and human rights advocates, the Americans’ past occupations, the wars, the red tagging, and now war with the only country that makes it possible to buy inexpensive masks, scrubs, sundry items, medicine and toys for the children—this next war, we may not survive! And the DoH want us nurses to work our butts off for low money and risk dying as thousands of us have done already in the pandemic. Too many of us haven’t survived already. I am going to Nova Scotia. I am sorry but I am not being raped by another USA soldier or blown up and yet not having enough money to cover all the bills. The government gave away the Philippines to the Americans for a war with China and we must go to safety,” said Karinna, and 7 women around the table nodded as did those who had stopped to listen.
Making Peace is the best solution. China is our neighbour and the Chinese people have a government which truly knew how to rise the people above poverty. We need to get our friends back.
If you want to insist on a better Lazada experience, complain about every instance of a problem. Inside the Lazada organization there are still people who seek to do better and still care enough to implement solutions. This is a better way forward for the whole of the Philippines communities, finding a peace.
But before that happens, we will need to get the warring Americans out of your country. That is the opinion of most Civil Society Organizations, not just us. The Philippines and its people must come first here in the Philippines.
Hope this helps. The Lazada Cares team is reachable.
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Vietnam Help Center: https://
Indonesia Help Center: https:/