Police have arrested 41 people tagged as involved in cybersex operations, considered as a first salvo of a digital platform it launched against cybercriminals operating in the country.
Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said the arrest came after a series of raids conducted by the Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) through a complaint and confirmed intelligence reports about the operations of the syndicates based in several areas in Valenzuela City and Batangas.
"They disguised as legitimate call center representatives operating in commercial establishments in Paso de Blas, Valenzuela City and Lipa City, Batangas and in a residential area in Sto. Tomas, Batangas. They disguised themselves as US -based young and attractive males and females blocked the victims’ online registration after taking at least 50 US dollars from each credit card account," said Eleleazar.
“Investigation disclosed that these cybersex syndicates are victimizing LGBT members by offering erotic massage services where they can only avail after paying certain registration fees using credit cards,” he added.
He the operation stemmed from information received from a concerned citizen via the E-ACCESS (Enhanced, Anti-Cybercrime Campaign, Education, Safety and Security) regarding suspicious call center activities in the aforesaid locations.
Eleazar then encouraged the public to avail of E-ACCESS or the Enhanced Anti-Cybercrime Campaign, Education, Safety and Security to help prevent cybercrimes and avoid falling prey to cybercriminals.
Cyber Watch
Launched on July 8, Project E-ACCESS aims to strengthen the campaign against cybercrime by providing an informative and convenient platform for cybercrime prevention awareness which the public can easily access.
According to Eleazar, E-ACCESS has two components: Cybercrime Watch and Cyber Web.
He said that since the Project E-ACCESS was launched, has been viewed 5,027 times and has had 2,025 visitors who verified the possible use of mobile phone numbers, email addresses, or social media accounts in the 5,367 cases entered into the Anti-Cybercrime Group’s database.
Records showed that there were 14 hits in queries by visitors to the system, which meant that there were 14 persons who were spared from falling prey to cybercriminals.
“Cybercrime Watch aims to inform netizens if an online account or mobile phone number has been previously used in committing cybercrimes, particularly financial fraud, so they could avoid falling victim,” Eleazar explained.
Cyber Web
On the other hand, Cyber “Web” has also identified 81 individual online accounts used by cybercriminals which were reported by different victims in multiple ACG units. This would mean that if a suspect will be arrested, all complaints, wherein the same account was reported by different victims, will be solved.
“Thus, this innovation in law enforcement is expected to increase the cybercrime solution efficiency of PNP ACG. The Cybercrime Watch also provides a reporting system if the suspect’s account that has victimized them is not yet encoded in the system for appropriate action,” said Eleazar.
He said the move is to increase the ACG’s cybercrime solution efficiency rate by building a central database of complaints filed against cybercriminals in all 16 regional offices of the unit nationwide.