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Love hurts: Over 160 arrested in Makati love scam hub raid

Philippines | Metro Manila

Love hurts: Over 160 arrested in Makati love scam hub raid

By Patrick Garcia

The suspects being caught in the act luring foreigners in the love scam.

A total of 167 Filipinos and two Chinese nationals were arrested by members of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Tuesday, Feb. 4, in a raid on an alleged love scam hub in Makati City that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to deceive its victims from parts of Europe and the Middle East, NBI National Capital Region (NBI-NCR) Director Ferdinand Lavin said.

The authorities caught the suspects red-handed while using AI technology to lure their victims into giving them their trust and affection first, then urging them to invest in cryptocurrency.

According to NBI Director Jaime Santiago, the raiding agents recovered various pieces of evidence that are being used by the suspects in their scamming operation including scripts on their desktops, cellphones programmed to automatically send messages to their victims, and multiple unregistered SIM cards for the phones.

The mobile phones being used in sending automated messages to the victims.

Various scripts are installed in the desktops of the suspects being used in the love scam.

Santiago, who also led the operation, tried the AI system being used by the suspects wherein his face was replaced by an AI generated face in real time just by looking at the webcam.

"Kanina, humarap ako doon, kahit yung sarili kong mukha nabago sa AI, real time napapalitan nila. Talaga madu-dupe nila into believing na tunay sila (Upon looking at the camera, my own face was replaced by an AI image in real time. This technology can really duplicate your face, effectively luring their victims into believing that the image is real)," Santiago said.

The NBI is looking into the filing of possible charges against the arrested individuals for violating the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act and the Cybercrime Prevention Act.

It also warned the public against scamming especially during the Valentine season.

Related Tags

Makati City Love scam National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) metro news Artificial Intelligence (AI)

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