Cops arrest 8 foreigners in investment fraud

Police arrested yesterday morning eight foreigners, including British and American citizens, for their alleged involvement in an operation selling fraudulent stocks to retired workers and pensioners. 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 hired as telemarketers, or those who would talk to the victims to convince them to invest in stocks that do not exist,” said Eleazar.

Eleazar said the police raided the office of the suspects in the Ortigas business district yesterday. It followed an operation the police conducted in Alabang, Muntinlupa three months ago where three people were arrested doing the same operation.

Eleazar said they traced the location of the suspects in Alabang with the help of private investigators from Australia who were handling the complaints of Australian pensioners who were duped of huge amounts of money.

He said the suspects would look for potential victims around the world in the Internet, and then lure them to invest their retirement funds on the fraudulent stocks. Based on investigation, the suspects would contact 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 provide 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, the investigation revealed.

In June this year, the police also arrested eight Israelis and almost 500 Filipinos for running the same kind of operation.

The online syndicate office run by the Israel nationals which was raided in Pasig City was earning $1 million a day and had victimized Australians, Americans, Canadians, some Europeans and Africans, the police said.

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 factors attracting foreign online syndicates to put the base of their operations here.

“There is a feeling that they can get away with it here,” said Eleazar.

For instance, he said that Philippine authorities could not easily obtain information from telecom companies in the Philippines without court orders, as well as weak laws.

In the case of the eight arrested Israelis who ran the same operation but were arrested in June this year, the Manila Bulletin learned that seven of them were able to leave the country.