OFFICERS of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) intercepted a 29-year-old trafficking victim last April 22 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 after attempting to depart for Thailand to work illegally.
The BI’s immigration protection and border enforcement section (I-PROBES) reported that the male victim initially claimed to be traveling alone as a tourist for a short vacation in Thailand.
He presented a Cebu Pacific round trip ticket and showed identification cards claiming that he is employed in a manpower agency in the Philippines.
The primary inspection officer noted inconsistencies in his statement and referred him for secondary inspection. Verifications revealed that he presented a fake return ticket, which prompted him to admit that he has no plans of returning and will instead proceed to Chiang Rai, Thailand to illegally work in an online gaming company.
He said that he was contacted through Telegram by a female recruiter, who enticed him to depart under such circumstances. The victim admitted that he paid a total of P30,000, and was promised a job with a monthly salary of $1,200.
I-PROBES Chief Bienvenido Castillo, III said that they suspect that this is another case of catphishing, wherein victims are promised work in online gaming companies but end up forced to be scammers abroad.
He added that one common modus that they have noted is that victims are made to pretend to be working locally for the manpower agencies that recruited them.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that the problem of catphishing masked as online gaming companies is already a big problem in the Asian region. He added that during conferences with neighboring countries, the same problem has been reported.
The modus invites aspiring employees to work in call centers or online gaming companies, only to be made to work as catphishers, targeting western men in online dating apps and tricking them into investing in fake cryptocurrency accounts.
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