By AARON RECUENCO
POLICE arrested Thursday morning eight foreigners, including British and American citizens, for their alleged involvement in duping retired workers and pensioners into investing in fraudulent stocks.
Director Guillermo Eleazar, director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said those arrested include three Americans, three Britons, a Canadian, and a citizen of Ghana in Africa.
“We also arrested 24 Filipinas whom they hired as telemarketers, or those who would talk to the victims to convince them to invest on stocks that do not exist,” said Eleazar.
The official said the operation at around 8:30 a.m. Thursday in Ortigas business district in Pasig City was an offshoot of the operation they conducted in Alabang, Muntinlupa, three months ago where they arrested three people.
Eleazar said they were able to track down the location of the suspects in Alabang with the help of private investigators from Australia who were handling the complaints of some Australian pensioners who were duped with huge sum of money.
“We got good leads during the Alabang operation and those leads led us here in Pasig City,” said Eleazar.
The modus of the suspects, according to Eleazar, is to search the internet in looking for potential victims from various parts of the world and lure them to invest their pensions and retirement pays to stocks.
Based on the investigation, the suspects would call or communication with at least 50 potential victims every day through private messages and social media accounts.
“Not all of the victims are lured into investing but if they are able to dupe one or two victims a day, that already serves as an accomplishment for them,” said Eleazar.
As soon as the victims provided their financial data, the suspects would either hack into the accounts and empty the deposits or would no longer communicate with the victims once the supposed investment was given to them.
In June this year, it was recalled that police also arrested eight Israelis and almost 500 Filipinos for running the same alleged syndicate.
The Israeli-led online syndicates raided in Pasig City was earning $1 million a day and victimized Australians, Americans, Canadians, some Europeans and Africans.
Seized during the operation were computers, modem routers, VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol phones, mobile phones and other documents.
Eleazar explained that weak laws relating to cybercrime in the Philippines is one of the major contributing factors why the foreign online syndicates prefer to put up the base of their operations in the country.
“There is a feeling that they can get away with it here,” said Eleazar. (Aaron Recuenco)