Thirteen foreigners reportedly involved in phishing activities have been arrested in Paranaque City, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said.
Phishing is “a fraudulent practice of sending emails purportedly coming from reputable companies to induce individuals to reveal personal information such as passwords, bank accounts, and credit card numbers.”
In a statement, the NBI identified those arrested as Chinese nationals Chen Qi Jun, Ou Zhong Qi, Chen Binggui, Chen Bei Xin, Wu Xingze, Yin Peng, Zheng Zhi Fa, Xu Shao Peng, Wei Chen, Li Chuangin, Yu Zou Wu, Chen Hua Sheng, and Zheng Shun Jin.
It said they were arrested last April 13 at the office of the 2G Company by agents of the NBI’s Special Task Force (NBI-STF) which implemented a search warrant.
Those arrested were charged before the Paranaque City Prosecutor’s Office with violations of Republic Act No. 10175, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
“Operatives of NBI-Digital Forensic Laboratory conducted on-site forensic examination (OS Triage) on the computer desktops and other devices being used by the subjects,” it NBI said.
“Through OS Triage, the operatives were able to discover that the computer devices used by the Subjects were indeed running fraudulent computer software applications, and thru the use of photographs, links, websites and other deceptive computer system and data, are performing computer-related fraud,” it added.
The NBI said the operation against 2G Company was conducted based on information from one its employees who said she was taught by the personnel of the company to participate in their elaborate scheme of victimizing foreigners using allures of cryptocurrency.
It said the informant also said “she was taught how to chat with prospective victims until she will lure and entice them to open a Binance and Metamask accounts.”
“Informant and her co-employees are given a list of possible target victims who they will chat using a fake account or they are directed to scour dating sites like Tinder using fake account to look for victims who must be employed and earning at least US$3,000 or whose professions are automotive engineers, computer programmers, or machine operators,” the NBI said.
“They will start chatting with these individuals using Tinder and will convince them to continue their conversation using WhatsApp fake accounts,” it said.
It added that after being asked to download and open an account on Binance or Metamask, the victims will receive “a phishing link where 2G has created a backdoor and the details such as the username and password of the victims will be sent to their controlled site or email.”