TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Two Taiwanese citizens were arrested in the Philippines on Thursday (Oct. 3) during a raid on an illegal fraud ring, which was posing as a technology company in the Greater Manila area.
The fraud ring was run by Chinese citizens from an office located less than a kilometer from the Philippines Senate in Pasay, reported TVBS. During the operation, more than 250 people were arrested, including 190 Chinese and 62 Filipinos.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines confirmed that two Taiwanese were arrested. They are reaching out to provide legal assistance if necessary.
The fraud ring was operating out of company offices belonging to a business named 3D Analyzer Information Technologies, reported Channel News Asia. The suspects arrested in Manila reportedly face charges of illegal gambling, fraud operations targeting victims overseas, and violations of Philippine employment and immigration law.
In similar cases of fraud rings operating in Southeast Asia, Taiwanese citizens have been held against their will and coerced into committing illegal acts.
In recent years, the Philippines has seen a rise in illegal fraud operations, mostly organized by Chinese citizens and Filipino partners, in the form of offshore gaming operators, or POGOs, which were licensed under the former Duterte administration. The Marcos administration has been cracking down on POGOS and declared all POGO operations illegal in July.
However, many former employees of POGO operations have scattered across the country, opening fraudulent businesses to continue engaging in illegal online activity. These operations typically take the form of call centers to scam Chinese-speaking people overseas.
