3 Pinoy crypto scam victims repatriated

The Bureau of Immigration reported the arrival of the latest batch of human trafficking victims repatriated from Myanmar.

BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco shared that the three male victims arrived in the country on Friday via Philippine Airlines flight from Bangkok.

Tansingco said that the victims, who were all in their 20s and 30s, were all recruited via Facebook to work as contact center agents in Thailand.

However, as in the case of previous victims, they were fetched by a van and transported to Mae Sot, Thailand, to cross the border to Myanmar via boat.

When they arrived in Myanmar, they were informed that they would be working as love scammers who preyed on Americans and Europeans by convincing them to invest in fictitious Bitcoin accounts.

They needed to meet a weekly quota in order to avoid suffering bodily penalties like push-ups and jump squats.

The victims also claimed that they worked nonstop for 16 to 18 hours each day. Although they were closely watched by their bosses, they were permitted to use their cell phones.

They were allowed to go home only after paying almost P90,000 to their company.

Tansingco said that this latest batch of repatriates shows that the syndicate is still operating and shared that even other Asian countries have already reported the same concern.