Cebu call center probed over scam activities

MANILA, Philippines — The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) will investigate a call center company based in Cebu City for allegedly operating as a scam hub.

The investigation was prompted by a post on YouTube of a white hat hacker and content creator exposing the alleged illegal activities of the company.

The content creator reportedly obtained information by hacking the security cameras of the call center.

Renato Paraiso, assistant secretary for legal affairs of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, said the DICT would reach out to the hacker-content creator, identified only as “mrwn,” for details about the scam.

Paraiso, CICC officer-in-charge, said “mrwn” has expressed frustration over the seeming lack of response from authorities on his videos exposing the scam hub.

“You can now contact the DICT and the CICC. We’ll make sure that your information, whatever findings you have, we will follow it up,” Paraiso said in an online press briefing yesterday afternoon.

He said the CICC is collaborating with local and foreign hacktivists or white hat hackers to go after scam hubs operating in and outside the country and victimizing Filipinos.

Paraiso urged hacktivists to partner with the DICT in stopping illegal activities online.

The content creator’s vlog titled “Scammers Panic After getting hacked Live on CCTV!,” which he posted on May 18, has been viewed more than 1.6 million times as of 5 p.m. yesterday.

In the vlog, “mrwn” showed a video recording taken from the closed-circuit television cameras of the company.

In the video, a woman was seen and heard making calls indicating that illegal activities were taking place in the hub.

Based on the video, the scam hub has been victimizing people in South Africa.