Just a little story

[cookierookie]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but it is about the SSP industry. I thought that it would be a precautionary tale that is good for everyone to know, and also, in my opinion, quite funny.

I have recently received two calls from random numbers in the Philippines. One guy told me that he owns a pearl farm down south in Mindanao (extremely dangerous part of the Philippines), and that he is a seller of natural pearls such as clam pearls, abalone pearls, coconut pearls (hahaha), melo-melo pearls etc. He wanted to sell me his pearls and was very long-winded about it. I told him to send me an email with photos and prices so that I could consider if I would ever purchase from him, but already knew that he was dodgy. Two days later, I received an email from him, with many pictures of natural pearls -- ALL taken from the internet all his prices for his SSP were "to be advised soon", which really made me laugh.

The second call, was from a man who claimed that he knows a pearl diver who dives for pearls (who he said is his brother in law), and that he has 6 pieces of SSP to sell to me. I asked him if he owned a farm, and he mumbled no. This just led me to suspect that the pearl diver was in fact stealing from a pearl farm which is the true reality of the pearl industry here.

 

[cookierookie]

The pearls were stolen...spoke to him again and i asked if the pearls are from a farm, and he said "yes". He said his brother "found" the pearls while diving at a pearl farm! and they don't own the farm. oh gosh...

 

[DaveTT]

Thank you for your story
Well, i also noticed that there are many special people in the pearl industry.
Many of the weirdos, seem to be in europe also

 

[KarinK]

I can see why people could be desperate enough for money to think they might get away with stealing pearls from a farm.

I don't condone it! But when back when we were hiring au pairs I always got swamped with applications from Phillipine women who felt there was no future for them in their homeland. It is common that if they do manage to leave the Phillipines they send home most of the money they get.

- Karin