Eight Chinese nationals have been arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for alleged scamming activities.
The NBI said the foreigners were arrested last Jan. 17 in Paranaque City during an operation conducted by its National Capital Region (NBI-NCR) who were armed with a warrant to search, seize and examine computer data (WSSECD) issued by the Paranaque City Regional Trial Court (RTC).
It identified those arrested as Xiao Li, Chuan Zi Gao, Ming Ru LI, WSen Shu Liu, Qui Shun Li, Cai Li Pan, Changfu Liu, and Zhang Zhen Hong.
They were charged before the Paranaque City Prosecutor’s Office with computer related forgery under Section 4(b)(1) of Republic Act (RA) No. 10175, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, and for violation of RA 12010, the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act.
The NBI said also named respondent in the case was Chinese national Hwang Xiaobin who remained at large.
It said the during the operation, the NBI-NCR seized laptops and desktops.
It also said that representatives of the NBI’s Digital Forensic Laboratory (NBI-DFL) conducted an onsite examination and discovered transcripts of template phishing and social engineering schemers used in obtaining sensitive information from persons.
It added that “financial transactions of crypto currency scams were also found during the examination.”
“The case stemmed from intelligence report that group of foreign nationals are engaged in investment fraud, crypto asset/currency scam, romance scam, identity theft through the use of social engineering scheme and digital communication schemes,” the NBI said.