Philippines authorities detain 400 foreign nationals in scam center raid

MANILA (AFP): Around 400 foreign nationals were arrested on Wednesday in a “large-scale” raid on a suspected online scam farm in Manila, the national immigration agency said.

Authorities raided a building and found workers allegedly engaged in online scam operations targeting victims abroad.

International concern has grown in recent years over similar scam operations in Asia which are often staffed by trafficking victims who were tricked or coerced into promoting bogus cryptocurrency investments and other cons.

“Their operations were found to violate immigration laws and posed significant risks to the public,” Fortunato Manahan, the Bureau of Immigration intelligence division chief, said in a statement describing the latest raid.

President Ferdinand Marcos in July announced a ban by the end of 2024 on Philippine online gaming operators (POGO) that Manila says have been used as cover by organized crime groups for human trafficking, money laundering, online fraud, kidnappings and even murder.

The Bureau of Immigration had been monitoring the “POGO-like activities” of the raided company “for some time”, the statement said.

The foreign nationals, many of whom were Chinese, were undergoing booking procedures, immigration bureau spokeswoman Dana Sandoval told AFP.

They will be temporarily detained while awaiting deportation, the bureau said.

The Washington-based think-tank United States Institute of Peace said in a May 2024 report that online scammers target millions of victims around the world and rake in annual revenues of $64 billion.

It estimates the industry employs half a million workers, including 15,000 in the Philippines, who were recruited mainly via social media and were then forced to carry out scams, facing torture if they failed to meet quotas.