CIDG files raps vs 2 Malaysians in ‘love scam’
CAUGHT Two Malaysians linked to human trafficking and an online “love scam” are held at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group office in Bacolod City on March 27. —CIDG
BACOLOD CITY, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines — Two Malaysians are facing qualified human trafficking charges over their alleged involvement in a “love scam.”
The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Bacolod filed a complaint of human trafficking—a nonbailable offense—against a 60-year-old man identified only as “Sam Phoon,” and a man in his late 20s who was given an alias as “Abao” at the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office on March 28, a day after they were arrested at Henrietta Village in Barangay Singcang-Airport.
The real names of the respondents were withheld by authorities in compliance with police privacy regulations.
Police Maj. Justin Noel Josol, chief of the CIDG-Bacolod, said the two Malaysians, who had expired visas, had been operating an online “love scam” for more than a year.
READ: Australian police warn vs PH-based ‘love’ scams
“The Malaysians ran fake online dating sites with foreign clients,” he said in an interview on March 29.
Modus
The modus operandi was that the two Malaysians allegedly hired local models to pose for sexy pictures. Then they hired Filipinos as online “sales representatives” but were instead given scripts to pretend that they were the models whose photos were posted online.
The scripts served as a guide on how to chat with foreigners who logged on to the dating sites. The Filipinos were then given quotas on the number of foreigners that they could deal with online in a month.
Josol said the Malaysians had hired at least 110 Filipinos to work as their “sales representatives.”
The operations had evolved where most of their “sales representatives” were allowed to work from home to make their operations less detectable, Josol said.
There were also complaints that these sales representatives were undercompensated and exposed to inhumane working conditions that were tantamount to labor exploitation.
The CIDG conducted surveillance operations for more than a month after they received a report about the respondents’ business through their former employee.
After securing a search warrant from a court, the CIDG, with the Bacolod City Police Office and the Department of Social Services and Development, hatched an operation that led to the arrest of the two foreigners.
Five Filipino employees were rescued during the operation on March 27.
