How promises of high salaries turned into slavery for hundreds of foreigners.
Philippine police have released hundreds of people who were forced to work for "Romance scam" scammers in the small city of Tarlac.
It is reported that 875 operators of a large fraud network, including about 500 foreigners, were released after they believed promises of high-paying jobs and were locked in a closed space on hundreds of square meters next to other such poor fellows, and were forced to deceive other people to avoid "penalties".
A video of the raid on the gambling firm POGO, released by the Philippine Police on March 14, shows officers from the Criminal Investigation and Detective Agency (CIDG) entering a room where employees are sitting in a row in front of computers.
The rescued workers came from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Rwanda, Taiwan, Indonesia and even Kyrgyzstan. The victims were allegedly lured by promises of a high-paying job offer. Instead, they were reportedly stripped of their passports and forced to pretend to be online boyfriends on dating sites in order to extort money from unsuspecting people.
Those operators who failed to meet quotas were physically punished: they were deprived of sleep, locked up in special rooms for a long time and even tortured, said Gilberto Cruz, executive director of the Philippine Presidential Commission against Organized Crime.
According to officials, the situation became known thanks to a Vietnamese employee who arrived at the POGO center in January after promising to work as a chef. He managed to escape and apply to law enforcement agencies. According to the police, they found signs of torture on him in the form of burns from electric shocks.
During the raid, authorities seized ammunition and weapons in a ten-hectare area located about 60 miles north of Manila. Mobile phones, SIM cards and text scripts for fraud were also found there. The 34 vehicles found on the territory had serial numbers and license plates that did not match the official Philippine automobile database.
Since the raid, nine criminals linked to POGO's activities have already been charged. According to local media, only one of them was Filipino. Five other people were Chinese, two Vietnamese and one Malaysian. All of these individuals are accused of violating anti-trafficking laws.
The company that managed this fraudulent operation has the name "Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated", as well as a very modest website, which is unlikely to immediately arouse suspicion. At first glance, it is more focused on recruiting staff than on finding customers.
The company's website also states that it was founded in 2023 as an up-and-coming" important player/provider in the gambling industry", providing"a wide range of services tailored to the unique needs of online casino operators around the world".
Meanwhile, fraudulent schemes involving slave labor have already become very commonplace in Southeast Asia. According to a January 2024 report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the development of scalable and digitalized solutions has accelerated criminal activity across Southeast Asia.
The report notes that the proliferation of such forced labor operations has increased calls for online gambling operators to be banned in the Philippines, leading to new regulations for such organizations.
Unfortunately, such regulatory measures aimed at combating cyber fraud operations have only pushed them out of Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam to places like Laos and parts of Myanmar. So it is not possible to say that these actions had the desired effect.
Who knows if the local police will be able to completely eradicate this type of criminal activity, and when, at least approximately, it will happen.
Although such operations are much less common in our region, you should always be especially vigilant against dubious companies that promise quick earnings: such organizations are highly likely to turn out to be fraudulent.
Philippine police have released hundreds of people who were forced to work for "Romance scam" scammers in the small city of Tarlac.
It is reported that 875 operators of a large fraud network, including about 500 foreigners, were released after they believed promises of high-paying jobs and were locked in a closed space on hundreds of square meters next to other such poor fellows, and were forced to deceive other people to avoid "penalties".
A video of the raid on the gambling firm POGO, released by the Philippine Police on March 14, shows officers from the Criminal Investigation and Detective Agency (CIDG) entering a room where employees are sitting in a row in front of computers.
The rescued workers came from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Rwanda, Taiwan, Indonesia and even Kyrgyzstan. The victims were allegedly lured by promises of a high-paying job offer. Instead, they were reportedly stripped of their passports and forced to pretend to be online boyfriends on dating sites in order to extort money from unsuspecting people.
Those operators who failed to meet quotas were physically punished: they were deprived of sleep, locked up in special rooms for a long time and even tortured, said Gilberto Cruz, executive director of the Philippine Presidential Commission against Organized Crime.
According to officials, the situation became known thanks to a Vietnamese employee who arrived at the POGO center in January after promising to work as a chef. He managed to escape and apply to law enforcement agencies. According to the police, they found signs of torture on him in the form of burns from electric shocks.
During the raid, authorities seized ammunition and weapons in a ten-hectare area located about 60 miles north of Manila. Mobile phones, SIM cards and text scripts for fraud were also found there. The 34 vehicles found on the territory had serial numbers and license plates that did not match the official Philippine automobile database.
Since the raid, nine criminals linked to POGO's activities have already been charged. According to local media, only one of them was Filipino. Five other people were Chinese, two Vietnamese and one Malaysian. All of these individuals are accused of violating anti-trafficking laws.
The company that managed this fraudulent operation has the name "Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated", as well as a very modest website, which is unlikely to immediately arouse suspicion. At first glance, it is more focused on recruiting staff than on finding customers.
The company's website also states that it was founded in 2023 as an up-and-coming" important player/provider in the gambling industry", providing"a wide range of services tailored to the unique needs of online casino operators around the world".
Meanwhile, fraudulent schemes involving slave labor have already become very commonplace in Southeast Asia. According to a January 2024 report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the development of scalable and digitalized solutions has accelerated criminal activity across Southeast Asia.
The report notes that the proliferation of such forced labor operations has increased calls for online gambling operators to be banned in the Philippines, leading to new regulations for such organizations.
Unfortunately, such regulatory measures aimed at combating cyber fraud operations have only pushed them out of Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam to places like Laos and parts of Myanmar. So it is not possible to say that these actions had the desired effect.
Who knows if the local police will be able to completely eradicate this type of criminal activity, and when, at least approximately, it will happen.
Although such operations are much less common in our region, you should always be especially vigilant against dubious companies that promise quick earnings: such organizations are highly likely to turn out to be fraudulent.
