11 nabbed for illegal voice call resale

MANILA, Philippines – A Japanese and 10 Filipinos were arrested during a raid on a software development firm on Friday for allegedly using their expertise to resell overseas calls without paying for the corresponding charges.

Yusuke Otani, 30; Bonna Salamat, 30; Fea Alyana Viray, 22; Neil Stevens Cruz, 24; Ashley Solomon, 25; Mark Neil Sta. Catalina, 23; Keith Manuntag, 20; Edna Atcha, 47; Ma Ellaine Garcia, 25; Jackilyn Acha, 26; and Lamberto Tagguiped, 46, are employees of TechResource Inc., according to Senior Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar, who heads the Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG).

He said the raid on the firm’s office in Trafalgar Plaza in Makati City is based on a search warrant for violating Republic Act 10175, the cybercrime prevention law.

In a report to Philippine National Police chief Director General Ricardo Marquez, Eleazar said a telecommunications firm sought the ACG’s assistance in investigating TechResource for reportedly cracking domestic SIM cards and using them for international calls and Internet connections.

The telecommunications firm, which Eleazar did not identify, claimed TechResource’s operations caused it to lose at least P700,000 per month in revenue.

Eleazar said ACG investigators found that the firm uses a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) gateway to convert international calls to domestic calls.

He said the illegal activity is called International Simple Resale, which refers to the unauthorized routing and completing of international long-distance calls using a computer system by connecting these calls directly to the local or domestic exchange facilities of the country where these are destined.

Experts from ACG also discovered that other SIM cards were used for Voice Over the Internet Protocol to cater to online audio and video calls.

The GSM gateway was connected on the Internet to transfer calls to the domestic SIM cards. There were 40 prepaid SIM cards that were inserted in the gateway that process international calls and VOIPs.

More than a 100 loose SIM cards were also found at TechResource’s office. The ACG also seized computers, routers, telephones, servers, closed-circuit television cameras and documents during the raid.