According to reports, agents from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in the Philippines arrested 5 foreigners and 24 Filipinos in Cavite Province.
On August 13, NBI Director Jaime Santiago stated at a press conference that they had received intelligence that several houses in the Grand Centennial Homes Subdivision of Cavite were suspected of being used as scam centers.
Santiago said, "After careful surveillance, we applied for a search warrant and raided the scam center on August 9, successfully capturing 29 people, including 3 Chinese, 2 Malaysians, and 24 Filipinos."
It is reported that the 24 Filipinos were supervised by these foreigners and are suspected of involvement in romance scams, investment fraud, cryptocurrency scams, and impersonation fraud among other illegal activities.
Jeremy Lotoc, Chief Prosecutor of the NBI's Cybercrime Division, revealed that this is a splinter group from a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) center.
Lotoc disclosed that the gambling group no longer operates in offices but has moved to residential units.
"Their different departments will move to different locations, they do this to avoid detection by law enforcement agencies."
Lotoc revealed, "The gambling group has an administrative department, an operations department, and a finance and money laundering department. The people we arrested last week through entrapment were mainly involved in fraud and money laundering activities, belonging to an operations department."
Lotoc stated that they also discovered a "scam showroom" filled with high-end products and luxury goods, intended to deceive victims into believing they could lead them to wealth.
Lotoc believes the gang still has a "big boss," but he refused to disclose more details and stated that NBI's follow-up actions are still ongoing.
In this operation, NBI seized pre-registered SIM cards, computers, devices containing scripts, mobile phones, textplus machines, etc.
Lotoc stated that the arrested individuals will be charged under the Anti-Financial Account Fraud Act (AFASA), and he also urged the Filipino public not to participate in such scams anymore.
