A 29-year-old suspected victim of human trafficking was stopped by Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers on 22 April at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3.
According to the bureau, the victim had attempted to depart the country bound for Bangkok, Thailand, with the intention of working illegally.
The BI’s Immigration Protection and Border Enforcement Section (I-PROBES) reported that the male victim initially claimed to be traveling alone as a tourist for a short vacation in Bangkok, Thailand.
During his immigration primary inspection, he presented a Cebu Pacific round-trip ticket, his itinerary, and also showed identification cards claiming that he was locally employed by a manpower agency in the country.
Due to the inconsistencies noted by the primary inspection officer in his statement, he was referred for a secondary inspection. Verifications revealed that he presented a fake return ticket, which prompted him to admit that he has no plans of returning and will instead proceed to Chiang Rai, Thailand, to illegally work for an online gaming company.
He claimed that a female recruiter contacted him on Telegram and convinced him to depart under such conditions. The victim also admitted that he paid P30,000 in total after being promised a job with a US$1,200 monthly salary.
I-PROBES Chief Bienvenido Castillo III said that they suspect that this is another case of catphishing, wherein victims are promised work in online gaming companies but end up being forced to be scammers abroad.
Castillo added that one common modus that they have noted is that victims are made to pretend to be working locally for the manpower agencies that recruited them.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that the problem of catphishing by online gaming companies is already a big problem in the Asian region. He added that during conferences with neighboring countries, the same problem has been reported.
The BI chief added that this modus entices prospective workers to apply for jobs at online gaming companies or call centers; but in reality, they force them to become catphishers who prey on Western guys via dating apps and deceive them into funding fictitious cryptocurrency accounts.
