Operatives of the Philippine National Police-Anti Cybercrime Group arrested an individual who was posing as a member of the United States Army in an entrapment operation in Pangasinan province.

PNP-ACG chief Brig. Gen. Joel Doria identified the US Army poser as Warlyn Tan Castro, who was arrested by operatives of Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit Cordillera on 21 October in San Carlos City, Pangasinan, by virtue of a Warrant of Arrest issued by Judge Rufus Malecdan Jr., of the First Judicial Region, RTC, Branch 60, Baguio City.

Investigations showed that the victim — who requested anonymity — met Castro through the social media Facebook, where she posed as a member of the US Army.

Eventually, the two had an online relationship, with the suspect convincing the victim of a future plan to settle in the Philippines.

Sometime in May, suspect told the victim that he is to receive a package from her containing a huge amount of money purposely for the start of their business together when she arrives in the country.
She told the victim that he must safe keep the money for her.

The suspect then told the victim that upon arrival of the package, it was detected in the scanning procedure that the package contained huge amount of money that was illegal and asked the complainant to pay P250,000 for the release of the package.

Police said that the victim was able to send P65,000 to the suspect and due to his eagerness to be able to complete the required payment for the release of the package, he borrowed money from his cousin.

It was when his cousin revealed to him that he fell prey to a Romance Scam/Package Scam, prompting the complainant to report the incident at RACU COR that eventually led to the suspect's arrest after an entrapment operation in claiming the money from the remittance center.

The suspect is now in custody and charged with swindling/estafa under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code.