Philippine police arrested more than 450 people in a raid on an allegedly Chinese-run offshore gaming operator in Manila, the nation’s anti-organized crime commission said.
Initial questioning suggested the suburban site had been operating as a scam center, targeting victims in China and India with sports betting and investment schemes, the commission said after the raid on Thursday, which saw 137 Chinese nationals detained.
“We arrested around five Chinese bosses,” commission chief Gilberto Cruz said yesterday, adding that they faced potential trafficking charges.
Photo: AFP
Banned by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr last year, Philippine online gaming operators (POGOs) are said to be used as cover by organized crime groups for human trafficking, money laundering, online fraud, kidnappings and even murder.
“This raid proves that the previous POGO workers are still trying to continue their scamming activities despite the ban,” Cruz said.
He previously said that about 21,000 Chinese nationals have continued to operate smaller-scale scam operations in the nation since the online gaming ban.
International concern has grown over similar scam operations in other Asian nations that are often staffed by trafficking victims tricked or coerced into promoting bogus cryptocurrency investments and other scams.
Marcos has put POGOs at the center of campaign messaging in the buildup to May midterm elections, framing his predecessor former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s alleged tolerance of the sites as evidence of a too-cozy relationship with China.
The Washington-based think tank United States Institute of Peace in a report in May last year said that online scammers target millions of victims around the world and rake in annual revenues of US$64 billion.
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