PH-based parcel scam hub busted, 159 foreign nationals rounded up

MANILA, Philippines — At least 159 foreign nationals, including 128 Indonesians, were rounded up at an alleged “parcel scam hub” in Pasay City on Tuesday, Nov. 2, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said.

According to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), the new scheme that has been operating for three months targeted Vietnamese, Chinese, Malaysian, and Indonesian nationals.

“As of now we have accounted [for] 159 personalities tagged rescued and persons of interest,” PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said in a briefing at a Pasay City office, where the scam hub was located.

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Other foreign nationals were from Malaysia, Vietnam, and China. They allegedly entered the country as tourists and have no work visas.

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READ: PNP: 1 Chinese, 2 Malaysians behind ‘parcel scam hub’ in Pasay City

Some workers have been reportedly forced to work after being tricked into virtual assistant job postings.

Three Indonesian nationals managed to escape and were able to alert police, which prompted the operation.

Among those found at the facility were several Indonesian and Malaysian police uniforms that were used to scam victims through a four-stage fraud scheme.

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CIDG-NCR chief Col. John Guiagui explained that one of the suspects would first pose as cops to convince victims that their packages contained illegal drugs and they were subject to an investigation.

Scammers would later threaten that the government would freeze their properties and bank accounts. “These are what we call the bad cops,” Guiagui said, adding that they “(would) instill fear and discomfort in their victims.”

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Later, another member would then impersonate a high-ranking police official, or what Guiagui described as a “good cop”, to persuade victims to transfer large sums of money to a “secure bank account.”

This scheme allegedly collected up to P1.5 million from their victims.

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Nartatez said that a Chinese national and two Malaysians have been found to be the masterminds of the whole operation. /cb