Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco once again warned the public on Thursday about the proliferation of scam accounts on social media. 

Tansingco stated that under the guise of being official pages, his office had received reports of email addresses and social media pages that were being used to extort unaware people.

According to the BI, in February, the Bureau was notified of an email account that was allegedly sending bills for PHP25,000 for a shipment that was purportedly being held for release from Japan.

The Bureau also shared that they received another similar complaint, extorting the victims PHP 3,000 for the release of a package from Syria. 

"In another complaint reported to us, a victim was being asked for PHP20,000 for the release of luggage being held at the airport," Commissioner Tansingco said.

The BI Chief clarified that the BI, is not in any way, connected to the release of parcels or cargo.

He added that they have forwarded details of the case to the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) for investigation.

It can be recalled that in 2022, the BI inked a coordination agreement with the CICC to strengthen its efforts against cybercrime.