Police raided Wednesday night an alleged cybersex den in Quezon City and rounded up its 30 employees.
Anti-cybercrime operatives of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) swooped down at about 9:56 p.m. the office of Kratos Online Marketing which reportedly serves as a hub for online pornography in Pablo Compound, Barangay Old Balara.
The raiders were armed with a search warrant which was issued earlier on the same day after confirming the activity of the cybersex den disguised as an outsourcing business center.
QCPD chief Senior Supt. Guillermo Eleazar said that their undercover agents posed as students and applied in the company as interns last February 11.
“Sila ay nag-OJT (on-the-job training) noong Feb. 12-15. Dito natin napatunayan na engaged nga ang mga naaresto sa cybersex crime tulad ng sale of pornographic materials at ‘sextortion,’” Eleazar said.
They found out that Kratos Online Marketing, owned by a certain Allan Ren Sulit, is engaged in the advertising and selling of obscene pornographic sites thru online chatting in electronic mail and social net websites. Most of their clients are foreigners, Eleazar said.
Their websites, which require clients to sign up, contain explicit pictures and photos of “models” whom their customers could talk to and later do their lewd activities.
They also ask for their customers’ credit cards from which they deduct $150 for registration and a month charge for subscribing.
They charge separate fees when clients view pornographic pictures and videos.
Eleazar said they also discovered that online payments are linked to different international banks that are registered to Sulit.
It was learned that Sulit hires chat operators who maintain the contents of the website. They work in three shifts.
During the raid, police arrested 30 chat operators with ages ranging from 18 to 32. Most of them are men while nine are women.
Police are hunting down Sulit who was not around during the raid.
Seized from the suspects were 30 computer sets, modems, CCTV monitors, recorders and cameras; and 120 sim cards, 80 of which are believed to have been used in their activities.
The suspects face charges for violating the Republic Act 10175 (The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012).
(VANNE ELAINE P. TERRAZOLA)