MANILA:  , Around 400 foreign nationals were arrested on Wednesday ( Jan 8 ) in a “large-scale” raid on a suspected online scam farm in Manila, the national immigration agency said.
Employees allegedly engaged in online scams allegedly targeting patients worldwide were discovered during a building raid.
In recent years, global concern has grown over equivalent scams in Asia, which are frequently led by trafficking victims who were deceived or forced into promoting phony cryptocurrency investments and other con.
The Bureau of Immigration knowledge department commander, Fortunato Manahan, said in a statement describing the most recent raid,” Their operations were discovered to be in violation of emigration rules and posed substantial risks to the public.”
Philippine online gaming operators ( POGO ), which Manila claims have been used as cover by organized crime organizations for human trafficking, money laundering, online fraud, kidnappings, and even murder, have been banned until the end of 2024, according to President Ferdinand Marcos ‘ July, last year.
The Bureau of Immigration had been monitoring the” POGO-like activities” of the raided company” for some time”, the statement said.
The international immigrants, many of whom were Chinese, were undergoing ordering processes, immigration commission spokesperson Dana Sandoval told AFP.
They will be briefly detained while awaiting imprisonment, the ministry said.
In a statement from May 2024, the Washington-based think tank United States Institute of Peace claimed online phony accounts that generate US$ 64 billion in annual revenue.
According to projections, the sector employs half a million employees, of which 15, 000 are located in the Philippines. These workers were primarily recruited through social media and later forced to carry out scams and face punishment for breaking quotas.