Pangasinan cyber cops bust online scammers
Two mobile phone sellers’ modus is to disappear after receiving online payment
CAMP BGEN OSCAR M. FLORENDO, La Union — Police arrested yesterday two suspected online scammers in an entrapment operation at a shopping mall in Barangay Carmen East, Rosales, Pangasinan.
The suspects were identified as Rodelyn Regelme y Sarenas, 31, married, store owner and a resident of Barangay Acop, Rosales, Pangasinan and Frederick Liban y Ganacias, 39, single, jobless and a resident of Barangay Militar in Port Magsaysay, Palayan City, Nueva Ecija and Acop Col. Domingo Soriano, officer-inchargeoftheRegionalAnti-CybercrimeUnit(RACU) 1 of the Rosales Municipal Police Station, said.
The suspects allegedly sell mobile phones through Facebook and demand payment from unsuspecting buyers through a GCash account. Once the money is remitted to them, the sellers don’t send the phone to the buyer and disappear.
Soriano said RACU 1 agents lured the seller into transacting at the food court of the shopping mall.
Regelme and Liban offered to settle their case by revealing their alleged mastermind and other members of their group in Region 3, Soriano said.
But the RACU agents turned down the offer and are now hunting their suspected cohorts.
The police also confiscated from the suspects various models of mobile phones, sim cards with GCash accounts and marked money.
Regelme and Liban were read their Constitutional rights in a dialect known and understood by them during their arrest before they were brought to the Conrado F. Estrella Regional Medical and Trauma Center at Carmay East Rosales, Pangasinan for physical examination, according to Soriano.
The suspects were then transferred to Rosales Police Station for documentation and temporary custody prior for inquest proceedings for Violations of Sections 4(a)(5) and 4(b)(2) (Misuse of Device) and Section 9 (b) (e) (k) of Republic Act No. 8484 (Access Devices Regulation Act of 1998) as amended by RA 11449 in 2019 in relation to Section 6 of RA 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012).