Two Malaysians are facing charges for qualified human trafficking for alleged involvement in a “love scam”, PMaj. Justin Noel Josol, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)-Bacolod, said Sunday, March 30.
Josol said the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office approved the filing of charges against alias “Sam Phoon,” 60, and alias “Abao” who is in his late 20s.
He withheld their real names citing privacy regulations.
The two were arrested at Henrietta Village in Barangay Singcang-Airport, Bacolod City, on Thursday.
Five Filipino employees were rescued during their arrest by virtue of a search warrant, he said.
The Malaysians were charged for qualified human trafficking for hiring Filipinos under false pretenses to be online “sales representatives”, and for under compensation and inhuman working conditions that are tantamount to labor exploitation, he said.
The Malaysians ran fake online dating sites with foreign clients, Josol said.
They hired local models to pose for sexy pictures.
The persons they hired as online “sales representatives” where then given quotas and scripts to pretend that they were the persons in the photos of the models and reply to dating chats from foreigners, Josol said.
The foreigners pay a fee to chat with potential “dates”.
The Malaysians had hired at least 110 persons, Josol said.
Their operations had evolved where most of their “sales representatives” were allowed to work from home to make their operations less detectable, Joson said.
They were arrested by virtue of a search warrant, following CIDG surveillance operations for more than a month.
The CIDG investigation indicates that the Malaysians had been operating the “love scam” for more than a year.
The Malaysian, who had expired visas, are believed to have cohorts in other countries, Josol said.*