Philippine Police Raid Pasay Scam Hub: 166 Foreign Nationals Rescued, Including 10 Chinese, at a Site Fitted Out as a Fake Police Station

Manila — The Philippine National Police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) raided a cyber-fraud hub inside an office building on Cuneta Avenue in Pasay City, Metro Manila, on the afternoon of November 3, rescuing and profiling 166 foreign nationals who had been coerced into online scam work: 138 Indonesians, 16 Vietnamese, 10 Chinese and 2 Malaysians. Police arrested three alleged operators, including a Chinese national described as the supervisor and two Malaysians.

The hub came to light after three Indonesian workers escaped and asked the police for help. According to investigators, an online gambling syndicate run by Indonesian citizens recruited workers through Telegram and Instagram with false promises of legitimate jobs as virtual assistants, then forced them into fraud work; the operation had been running for about three months. Police stressed the site was not a POGO offshore-gaming operation but an international fraud ring targeting people in other Southeast Asian countries.

The parcel scam ran in four stages: a caller posing as a courier said a parcel was on its way; a second caller, posing as a police officer on video, claimed the parcel contained illegal drugs, that the victim was under criminal investigation and that their assets could be frozen; finally, another member played the 'good cop' and offered help in exchange for money transfers. Rooms at the site were arranged to look like a police station, and officers recovered Indonesian and Vietnamese police uniforms, caps and insignia, plus tarpaulins bearing photos of Indonesian and Vietnamese police officials, used to intimidate victims on video calls. Victims were targeted mainly in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and China.

PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. and Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla inspected the facility on Tuesday afternoon. Nartatez ordered the CIDG to widen the investigation into local support networks behind the hub, including financiers, recruiters and facilitators. Initial counts put the number rescued at 159 before the final profiling figure of 166.

Related: Follow-Up: Madagascar Raids 13 Scam Compounds, 148 Chinese Nationals Handed Over to China

(Source: Philippine News Agency)

Source: Philippine News Agency

Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：菲律宾帕赛市城市天际线（资料图）。CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Pasay City skyline in Metro Manila, the Philippines (file photo). CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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