Young and tech-savvy victims are trapped and then forced into running illegal operations online.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13126167

Hundreds rescued from love scam centre in the Philippines

Hundreds of people have been rescued from a scam centre in the Philippines that made them pose as lovers online.

Police said they raided the centre on Thursday and rescued 383 Filipinos, 202 Chinese and 73 other foreign nationals.

The centre, which is about 100km north of Manila, was masquerading as an online gambling firm, they said.

South East Asia has become a hub for scam centres where the scammers themselves are often entrapped and forced into criminal activity.

Young and tech-savvy victims are often lured into running these illegal operations, which range from money laundering and crypto fraud to so-called love scams. The latter are also known as “pig butchering” scams, named after the farming practice of fattening pigs before slaughtering them.

These typically start with the scammer adopting a fake identity to gain their victim’s affection and trust - and then using the illusion of a romantic or intimate relationship to manipulate or steal from the victim. This often happens by persuading them to invest in fake schemes or businesses.

  • decadentrebel@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    Tbf mga target nila kadalasan may edad na and they’re not exactly computer literate.

    Ano ba kasi silbi ng mga DICT and other so-called cybercrime agencies if they’re not going to step up their efforts in keeping the public informed? When I saw this scam years ago, I even took it literally and assumed it was a pyramid scheme involving pork. Take a page out of Flavier’s DOH days and come up with catchy ads ng ma-minimize mga nagogoyo.