Under the leadership of Jaime B. Santiago, the Director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and a retired judge, the NBI collaborated with the Philippine Naval Intelligence Security Force (NISF) to successfully dismantle a transnational criminal organization based in Central Visayas, Philippines, which specialized in scamming foreign victims. The recent raid targeted a scam hub disguised as a call center in the Mactan area of Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu Province, resulting in the arrest of 31 individuals, including two Taiwanese masterminds, Tsai Zhi-Ting and Liu Cheng-Chih, along with 29 Filipino employees involved.
According to intelligence provided by the NBI Central Visayas and Cebu regional offices, the criminal group had long exploited the privacy of residential areas to impersonate e-commerce customer service, create fake social media accounts, and fraudulent shopping websites to lure overseas users into investing in fictitious cryptocurrency projects, applying for non-existent jobs, or purchasing goods that would never be shipped. Once the victims made payments, they would be blocked and completely cut off.
During the raid on June 4, law enforcement officers, acting on a court-issued Warrant for Search, Seizure, and Examination of Digital Data (WSSECD), searched the premises and seized a large amount of electronic equipment and fraudulent content, including a fake e-commerce platform disguised as "shope6vip.martin1707.com". The 29 Filipino employees who were working at the site were arrested on the spot, under the direct command of Tsai and Liu. All seized electronic devices have been transferred to the NBI Digital Forensics Laboratory for further analysis.
All suspects have now been charged under Section 4(b)(2) of the Republic Act No. 10175, the "Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012", for computer-related fraud, and the case has been forwarded to the prosecutor's office in Lapu-Lapu City for processing.
Following the operation, NBI Director Santiago highly commended the coordinated performance of the local offices and intelligence department, and specially thanked the Navy for their tactical support during the raid. He emphasized that although the remaining POGO gangs have moved to more concealed areas, the National Bureau of Investigation will continue to promote inter-agency cooperation, intensify efforts against cybercrime, and will not allow national security and public rights to be compromised.
"We know these criminal groups have become more cunning and their operations more covert, but the NBI will not back down. We will continue to root them out, whether they hide in city corners or remote areas." — Director Santiago
