Alien scammers fall

Operatives from the Department of Justice (DoJ), Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) launched an operation in some residences inside the Ayala Alabang Village to apprehend foreign scammers.

The operation — which was done in coordination with personnel from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) — was based on intelligence and information from residents and served arrest warrants for some foreign nationals and a mission order from the BI.

This comes after the DoJ coordinated with the NBI to conduct the operation and serve the arrest warrants as the Justice department also requested the BI to supplement the warrants to process immigration concerns and ensure that other nationals could be processed if found on the property.

The first address was the subject of the operation due to the identification of a Porac POGO boss residing in the house and when operatives entered, three Chinese nationals were found in violation of immigration laws.

Two showed their passports but were found to be overstaying in the Philippines, while the third Chinese National could not present any documentation.

A live computer operated by a Chinese individual was found and when read by an interpreter, the screen showed scripts used in a standard phishing scam. They also used a voice-over IP, which is equipment usually used in telephone scams to avoid detection.

The second address, on the other hand, was the subject of a mission order where it yielded five foreign nationals — four Chinese and one Vietnamese national. Four of them could not present documentation and were therefore illegal aliens.

In a statement, the DoJ said that it is a natural trend due to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s declaration banning POGOs in the country and stressed that it is the POGO companies’ desperate last effort before leaving the country.

With these raids, the government assures the Filipino people that they will not stop until every scam operator has left our borders.

The POGO CLOSURE Task Force has previously clarified that since the President’s declaration banning POGOs, the only type of activity allowed are those related to winding down such as selling assets, settling bills and paying taxes, among others. Any operation is illegal and vulnerable to operations by law enforcement agencies.