Short answer. Article 318 is the catch-all. It punishes anyone who defrauds or damages another by a deceit not covered by the earlier swindling articles, and separately punishes people who charge money to interpret dreams, tell fortunes or otherwise exploit public credulity.
What the law says
shall be imposed upon any person who shall defraud or damage another by any other deceit not mentioned in the preceding articles of this Chapter
Revised Penal Code, Article 318 — Other Deceits. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Any person who, for profit or gain, shall interpret dreams, make forecasts, tell fortunes, or take advantage of the credulity of the public in any other similar manner
Revised Penal Code, Article 318 — Other Deceits. Read the full provision →
A residual offence, by design
The first paragraph reaches any person who shall defraud or damage another by any other deceit not mentioned in the preceding articles of this Chapter. That last clause is the whole point. The chapter on swindling already lists specific frauds in detail; Article 318 exists so that a deception which causes real loss does not go unpunished merely because it does not match one of those enumerated forms. In practice a complaint reaches this article when the elements of the specific estafa provisions cannot all be made out — the property was not received in trust, no false pretence preceded the payment — yet a deliberate deceit and actual damage are both plain on the facts.
What still has to be proved
Being a catch-all does not make it easy. Two things remain essential. There must be a false pretence, fraudulent act or deceit — something more than a broken promise or an optimistic sales pitch. And there must be damage or prejudice capable of being measured in money. A lie that hurt nobody's pocket is not this offence, and a loss with no deception behind it is a civil matter. That second requirement also has a practical consequence: because the fine is pegged to the damage caused, you need to be able to state and prove the amount you actually lost, not merely assert that you were misled.
The fortune-telling paragraph
The article's second paragraph is separate and surprises most readers. It punishes any person who, for profit or gain, shall interpret dreams, make forecasts, tell fortunes, or take advantage of the credulity of the public in any other similar manner. No individual victim and no proven monetary loss are required for this limb — what is punished is charging money for such services and exploiting public gullibility. The closing phrase, "in any other similar manner", is what modern complaints usually rest on: paid spiritual healing, guaranteed lucky-number schemes, or paid predictions of fortune. The penalty here is arresto mayor or a fine not exceeding ₱40,000.
Penalty amounts, limits, and practical steps
The penalty under the first paragraph is arresto mayor and a fine of not less than the damage caused and not more than twice that amount. Those peso figures, and the ₱40,000 ceiling in the second paragraph, are the ones set by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised fines and property values throughout the Revised Penal Code. Older reproductions still print the 1930 amounts — for theft and estafa they show 12,000 and 22,000 pesos where the current figures run to millions — so always check which version a source is giving you. Note what this article does not do: it does not apply where a specific swindling provision fits, it does not turn an unpaid loan into a crime, and it does not recover your money by itself, since the civil claim is pursued alongside. Keep the receipts, chat threads and advertisements that carried the misrepresentation, compute your actual loss, and take it to a lawyer promptly.