‘Crypto scam hubs operating in PH’ | #datingscams | #lovescams | #facebookscams

SEN. Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros warned that the Philippines now hosts some cryptocurrency scam “hubs,” employing foreigners trafficked into the country.

The senator raised the issue on Wednesday during the Senate inquiry on human trafficking. “The Philippines should not be used as a petri dish for human trafficking,” she said. “Sadly, right under our very noses, the Philippines is hosting its very own scam hubs.”

The chairman of the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality said foreigners enter the country with the aid of unscrupulous airport or immigration officials.

“This is a serious national security concern that we must urgently address. We cannot allow these syndicates to turn our country into outlaw territory,” Hontiveros said.

She deplored reports that large condominium buildings are being repurposed as living and working facilities for trafficked human beings “forced to perform scams on hapless victims.”

Hontiveros said that these trafficked victims, “numbering in the hundreds and perhaps even in the thousands, “are from Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, countries in Africa and in South Asia.”

Sen. Rafael “Raffy” Tulfo, chairman of the Committee on Migrant Workers, underscored the importance of finding a lasting solution to human trafficking.

“We need to implement stronger laws and policies, provide support and protection for the victims, as well as to double our efforts in raising awareness on the dangers of human trafficking and its serious consequences,” Tulfo said.

During the hearing, Ridwan (not his real name), an Indonesian, said he was tricked and trafficked into the country to work as a scammer.

Ridwan shared that he applied for a digital marketing role in the Philippines, but later discovered that the job was actually “to scam” fellow Indonesians to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency investments.

When he arrived on March 7, Ridwan said he was met by an unidentified “escort” who helped him and two other Indonesians “seamlessly pass” through the Bureau of Quarantine and the immigration counters. A driver later brought them to Bayport West NAIA Garden Residences in Pasay City.

“We were instructed to steal the identities of other people to scam targets. Our targets are our fellow Indonesians. We find them on Tinder, Facebook and Instagram,” he testified. “After our targets fall in love with us, we make them invest in cryptocurrency. When we do not get victims, we will get punished,” Ridwan added.

After learning about the electrocution and punishment experienced by other employees who were not able to successfully scam, Ridwan said he wanted to leave. He was then told to pay the P100,000 that the company spent to bring him to the Philippines. He left the premises on March 13.

Hontiveros said she considers the reported “vast and thriving fraud scheme, also known as ‘pig butchering scam,’ a huge and worrying development.”

She exposed in 2022 a large-scale human trafficking operation that targeted Filipinos looking for jobs abroad. The Filipinos were forced to work as scammers in Myanmar and Cambodia.

“A humanitarian crisis is taking shape. A mass of desperate humanity. Human beings of the world are being hurt, abused and used in order to perpetrate fraud,” she said.

She called on social media companies to immediately take down dubious job ads that lead to these scam operations, emphasizing that there may still be Facebook ads targeting nationals from Southeast Asia, South Asia and Africa to work in these fraud factories in the Philippines. Ridwan himself found the job in a Facebook ad. “It is frightening that these criminal activities have been made easy by social media platforms,” Hontiveros said.