Philippine officials rescue 162 people in raid on suspected cyber scam hub – The Diplomat

Philippine authorities have raided a suspected illegal online gaming and scamming complex in Cebu province and rescued more than 160 people who allegedly committed cybercrime under duress. The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) said yesterday that the raid at the Tourist Garden Resort in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, was carried out Saturday morning by personnel from the National Bureau of Investigation, the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking and the Department of Justice.

PAOCC spokesperson Winston Casio told reporters that the raid came after the Indonesian Embassy in Manila requested the rescue of eight Indonesians who were allegedly forced to work for a Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) based at the resort, Rappler reported.

“There were three Indonesian nationals who escaped here on July 21. They then sought help from the embassy and the embassy informed us,” Casio said.

According to the PAOCC, 162 foreigners were “found in three separate scam businesses within the compound.” These included 83 Chinese, 70 Indonesians, six Burmese, two Taiwanese and one Malaysian. Authorities seized computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices that were allegedly used in various types of online scams, including “pig slaughter” romance scams and fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes. “All foreigners will be brought to Manila to face summons for violating immigration laws,” PAOCC said in a later statement.

The owner of the hotel complex was arrested and could face criminal charges. “We will propose to the authorities to file cases against resort owners who allow their properties to be used by illegal aliens in their undercover operations,” Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said, according to the Associated Press. “This will serve as a warning to those who attempt to launch illegal online gambling operations.”

The raid on the Tourist Garden Resort, a 10-building complex that includes restaurants, swimming pools and karaoke bars, came shortly after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued a ban on POGOs, online gambling companies that primarily target customers in China, where illegal gambling is prohibited.

Although POGOs have been present in the Philippines for about two decades, they have proliferated under President Rodrigo Duterte, who encouraged Chinese investment after taking office in 2016. This growth has only accelerated in the two years since Marcos took office. Many POGOs are linked to organized criminal activity, particularly sophisticated “pig slaughter” scams that target victims around the world.

Announcing the ban during his annual State of the Nation address in mid-July, Marcos alleged that POGOs “have ventured into illegal areas furthest from gambling, such as financial fraud, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture and even murder.” He added: “The grave abuse and disrespect for our justice system must stop.”

The announcement was followed by raids on several major operations, where authorities suspect thousands of Chinese citizens and other foreigners, mostly from Southeast Asia, have been forced to carry out fraudulent activities under threat of beatings, torture and other ill-treatment.

A similar pattern has been repeated in many parts of Southeast Asia, where online gambling operators switched to scam operations at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the Philippines, scam operations have spread to mainland Southeast Asia at an alarming rate, particularly in parts of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

The United Nations reported last year that at least 120,000 people in Myanmar and at least 100,000 in Cambodia “may be trapped in situations where they are forced to carry out online scams.” The scam centers in the region are estimated to “generate billions of dollars in revenue annually.”

The transnational nature of the scam epidemic is underscored by the strikingly similar pattern in each of these cases. Fraud factories are maintained by armies of indentured servants, most of whom are lured by promises of clean, legitimate work, only to be captured and forced to run various types of digital scams.

The Philippines isn’t the only country currently vowing to clamp down on scam syndicates. In mid-August, the Lao government ordered online scammers to vacate the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ), a notorious casino and scam hub in the country’s northwest, by Aug. 25. Before and after the deadline, Lao and Chinese officials conducted a series of raids on the zone, an extraterritorial enclave run by a Chinese gangster magnate named Zhao Wei.

On August 12, Lao authorities claimed to have arrested and deported 1,389 people involved in scams, including 1,211 Chinese nationals. In a subsequent raid on the GTSEZ on August 26, they arrested another 60 Lao and Chinese nationals and reportedly shut down 16 scams. Radio Free Asia quoted a Lao police officer as saying that the law enforcement operation would “take many days.” Incidentally, among those rescued in the recent raids on the GTSEZ were 125 workers from the Philippines, who have since been repatriated.

Whether these crackdowns will have much impact on the multibillion-dollar profits of transnational fraud syndicates remains to be seen. These syndicates have demonstrated a remarkable ability to pick up and relocate their operations in response to crackdowns – and there appears to be no shortage of jurisdictions willing to host them. An archipelago of special economic zones and casino developments have provided the supporting infrastructure for criminal activity of various kinds, and there are entire regions of Myanmar controlled by rebel groups and armed militias that have long hosted transnational criminal activity, if not directed to do so themselves. Meanwhile, fraud operations continue to flourish in Cambodia, where there is considerable evidence that they enjoy the patronage of prominent businessmen and high-ranking government officials.

And indeed, in a report this week, the Bangkok Post quoted a border security source as saying that many online scam gangs in the GTSEZ have since relocated to Myanmar and Cambodia. Similarly, Frontier Myanmar recently reported that scammers based in Shwe Kokko in Myanmar’s Karen State, close to the Thai border, have responded to a crackdown by migrating further south and resettling near the Three Pagodas Pass border crossing. According to the report, they have done so with the help and support of the Kayin Border Guard Force, the same force that ordered them out of Shwe Kokko earlier this year.