Manila: Police Free Over 1,000 ‘New Slaves’ to Online Scams

A network was uncovered and is being investigated: they were rounding up people from all over Southeast Asia, who they were convinced were coming to the Philippines to look for a normal job, and employing them in criminal activities such as sales fraud, erotic chats, and cryptocurrency scams. A senator highlighted the presence of “call center of deceit” in the country and called for government intervention.

Manila () – Online scams are a plague affecting all of Asia: the Philippine police recently discovered and dismantled a network involving a thousand foreigners, mostly from Southeast Asia, but also from other countries. Vietnamese, Indonesian, Chinese, Burmese, Malaysian, Nepalese, Taiwanese and Thai: convinced they came to the Philippines for normal work, they were actually later arrested and employed in criminal activities ranging from fraudulent sales, through chat rooms to sexual blackmail, to lucrative business proposals in cryptocurrencies.

According to local authorities, 1,090 people were rescued during an action against a residential complex in the city of Mabalacat, in the province of Pampanga, north of the capital, Manila. Some exploiters, mostly Chinese nationals, were arrested and remanded in custody for human trafficking.

The police explained that the possible ramifications and connections of this type of modern slavery are being investigated: the victims, whose passports had been stolen, were forced to work up to 18 hours a day to contact unsuspecting clients in Europe, the United States and Canada. His job was to offer lucrative cryptocurrency investments or the purchase of houses or cars to people he lured with fake online romances. Any breach of the rules was punished with heavy deductions from salary and they were even forced to remain in the work area after finishing their shifts to sleep in special dormitories.

The police operation stemmed from the Indonesian embassy in Manila, which had received requests for help from its citizens. However, the problem has been known for a long time and involves a large number of organizations that know how to exploit the possibilities offered by the Internet and the credulity of the victims, both those who are lured by the promise of a well-paid job and those who later they become your customers.

Complaints by human rights organizations have long pointed to the extent and prevalence of human trafficking through Internet scams, of which even politicians now seem to be aware: In April, Senator Risa Hontiveros had called Parliament’s attention to the “call center deception” operating in the Philippines, pointing to international pressure for the government to intervene decisively.

Other major centers engaged in such activities are in Cambodia and Myanmar, where criminal groups enjoy high-level connections or are linked to interests that have so far prevented radical intervention despite the widespread popularity and notoriety of the phenomenon.