MANILA (AFP) – Criminal gangs running online scam farms in the Philippines are downsizing in a change of tactics to avoid a sweeping crackdown, officials said yesterday.
President Ferdinand Marcos in July announced a total ban by end-2024 on so-called Philippine online gaming operators (POGOs) that Manila said were being used as cover by organised crime for human trafficking, money laundering, online fraud, kidnappings and even murder.
Justice Undersecretary Felix Nicholas Ty said government raids were ongoing as scammers continue to traffic foreign and local workers, forcing them to pitch clients around the world on fake investment schemes.
But they no longer operate in huge compounds or office complexes in large cities, having relocated to the provinces using less conspicuous buildings.
“The MO (modus operandi) right now of these operations is to have a guerrilla-style, smaller-scale (operations) in resorts, maybe even residences,” Ty told a security forum, adding some also switched to hardware that are not “top of the line”.
“We’re seeing the evolution from big-scale operations to smaller operations,” agreed Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who also spoke at the forum.
Gatchalian said the scam farms were employing other guises, including a recently raided outfit that was masquerading as a business process outsourcing but was found to be running “scamming software”.