Chinese, 13 others nabbed in scam hub

MANILA, Philippines — Fourteen people, including a Chinese national, were arrested during a raid on a suspected scam hub in Parañaque City on Friday, the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group reported yesterday.

CIDG director Brig. Gen. Abraham Abrahano said operatives swooped down on the scam hub at a condominium building in Barangay Tambo.

A Chinese woman was among those arrested, Abrahano said. A 17-year-old girl was also rescued.

Complaints have been filed against the suspects for violation of Republic Act 9208, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, as amended by RA 10364 in relation to the Cybercrime Prevention Act and RA 12010, the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act.

The CIDG conducted the operation after receiving information that scammers were sending links to victims through online messaging application Telegram.

Investigation showed that each suspect was assigned to 600 Telegram accounts to contact potential victims.

Once the victims access the links, they are directed to do online tasks such as liking the pages of hotel packages.

Once they complete the tasks, the victims are instructed to open a cryptocurrency account. The scammers then require them to deposit funds.

The victims are subsequently directed to transfer the deposited funds into a Binance account allegedly managed by the arrested Chinese suspect.

Abrahano said the suspects lured victims with the promise that the transferred money would generate profit or accrue interest. However, it led to financial losses on the part of the victims.

Seventy desktop computers, cell phones, computer peripherals, a vault and passports were seized during the raid. Police also discovered cryptocurrency account numbers.