Sen. Hontiveros aghast at details of huge cyber scam ops in Clark

SENATE Deputy Minority leader Risa Hontiveros exposed on Tuesday the sordid and full details of a huge cyber scam operation unearthed by raiders of a Clark ecozone firm from where over a thousand human-trafficking victims from around Asia were rescued recently.

She promptly called on authorities to check similar nefarious setups of criminals posing as investors.

The opposition lawmaker likewise renewed her call to altogether ban Philippine

Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) in the country, noting how these provide a “legal layer” to cyber scam hubs, which she lamented, “remain beyond regulatory scrutiny.”

Senate probers dug into Resolution No. 595 calling for an inquiry in aid of legislation on human trafficking and cyber fraud operations in Clark authored by Sen. Grace Poe, and Senate Resolution No. 611 calling for an investigation on human trafficking inside the Clark Freeport Zone filed by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian.

It was also a continuation of the initial inquiries triggered by Gatchalian’s privileged speech regarding Filipino workers who escaped from “scam hubs” in Myanmar and Cambodia.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Hontiveros said that a licensed POGO has been used as a legal cover for a cryptocurrency scam and human trafficking operation in Sun Valley Hub Corporation in Clark, Pampanga.

The scam is operated by a company called Colorful and leap Group, which is a sublessee of CGC Technologies Inc., a POGO company licensed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

The Inter-agency Council Against Trafficking confirmed during the Senate Committee on Women hearing on scam operations that scam hubs do hide under a legal cover.

“It is appalling that this fraudulent cryptocurrency corporation, which has trafficked thousands of foreign nationals into the country to work as scammers, has been operating under a legal POGO.

Ginagamit o nagpapagamit ang mga POGO

para manloko ng mga inosenteng tao,” Hontiveros said.

“Ano ang ginagawa ng PAGCOR? Hindi naman pwede na pag-nagapruba sila, hindi na nila babantayan. PAGCOR, as the regulator of POGOS, should be actively looking into the companies that they allow to operate in the country. Otherwise, it is, in effect, exacerbating this growing and disturbing humanitarian crisis in our region,” Hontiveros said.

The premises were raided by law enforcement authorities last May 4, which resulted in the arrest of at least 12 individuals, who were allegedly supervising the operations. Currently, the repatriation is ongoing for the over 1,000 human trafficking victim-survivors from Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Myanmar, Thailand, and Bhutan, among others.

Hontiveros conducted an ocular inspection of the Colorful and leap Group offices and residences in Clark. The senator also met with some victim-survivors who shared their ordeal, which turned out to be similar to the love scam modus in Myanmar and Cambodia that the senator previously revealed in the Senate.

“The scam office, led by Chinese bosses, operates like a huge call center, with rows and rows of computer tables. This was where the victim-survivors would set up their fake accounts using different female models also hired by the company. They would then find scam victims usually from the US, through dating apps like Tinder, Facebook Dating, Bumble, and Hinge,” Hontiveros explained.

“The offices even have video conference rooms that are set up to look like a bedroom, a living room, a gym, or an office, so the hired model can pretend to be there should the American victim ask for photos or videos to confirm her veracity. Kapag sa tingin nila naiinlove na ang Amerikano, doon na magsisimulang kumbinsihin niyang mag-invest sa pekeng

cryptocurrency platform. Hanep sa panggagantso,” Hontiveros added.