BI renews warning vs online trafficking

THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) reiterated its warning against illegal online recruitment after the recent repatriation of another Filipino victim who was forced to work as a scammer for a Chinese company in Myanmar.

Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco on Monday said that the victim, identified as «Gio,» 33, was supposedly recruited by a certain «Liza» through Facebook, and lured to work as a customer service representative.

Gio was promised a monthly salary of up to P100,000 but received only P60,000 per month for a period of six months.

Tansingco said Gio was forced to work as an online love scammer by attracting foreign victims to invest in pseudo crypto currency accounts.

Gio left the Philippines in September 2022 with two other friends, all of them posing as vacationers heading to Thailand.

He was repatriated last September 22. He was only able to return home after pooling P200,000 from family and friends to pay his company for his release.

Tansingco said that the same modus has been observed since last year, and victims are often promised high salaries but end up in debt.

As early as October 2022, Tansingco already sounded the alarm on the modus targeting Filipinos to work for companies that operate online scams such as «catfishing.»

«Catfishing» broadly refers to a method of identity theft by taking personal information, photos and images from other people to create a new identity.

«This is a case of double trafficking, wherein the victims are trafficked by making them agree through false promises, and then they will be forced to be part of a scamming syndicate making it hard for them to seek help and repatriation,» said Tansingco.

The victim was assisted by officials from the National Bureau of Investigation and