Man nabbed for identity theft

MANILA, Philippines – A man was arrested after he tried to get a credit card using another person’s identity in Parañaque City on Friday.

Joseph Nicol Tan Ong showed fake identification cards to claim the credit card during a sting in Greenheights Subdivision, said Senior Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar, Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) chief.

Ong faces charges of violating Republic Act 8484, the access devices regulation law, and RA 10175, the cybercrime prevention law.

Eleazar said Ong’s arrest stemmed from a request by a bank after it received a call through its customer service from a man who claimed to have lost his credit cards in a taxi.

The suspect reportedly tried to bypass the bank’s questions, meant to weed out impostors, and requested that his email address and mobile phone number be updated, Eleazar said.

The suspect was waiting outside the real bank client’s house and approached the messenger, who was an undercover police officer, bearing the new credit card.

Ong presented a fake driver’s license and voter’s identification card, which had the personal data of the bank client but bore his own photo, Eleazar said.

After Ong received the credit cards, ACG operatives, led by Superintendent Mark Mapacpac of the cyber financial crime section, arrested the suspect.

Eleazar said they are still investigating how Ong managed to get the bank client’s personal data.