Six Filipinos repatriated from Malaysia after raids on alleged online scam hubs, BI says

Six Filipinos who had worked in Kuantan and Kota Kinabalu returned home after Malaysian police raided workplaces allegedly running online scams; the Bureau of Immigration says they were recruited through Facebook and Telegram job ads.

Six more Filipinos have been repatriated from Malaysia after police raids on their workplaces, which were reportedly operating as online investment and customer service centres but were allegedly involved in online scamming, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration (BI) said. The Daily Tribune and DZRH reported the BI’s account on 4 November.

The six, five men aged 28 to 33 and a 37-year-old woman, arrived in the Philippines on 24 October. They had been working in Kuantan and Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, and were interviewed on arrival by officers of the BI’s Immigration Protection and Border Enforcement Section (I-PROBES).

Recruited for call centre jobs

All six reportedly said they had been recruited for customer service representative or call centre agent positions, with promised monthly salaries of US$1,000 to US$1,200. Instead, they claimed they were made to engage in online gambling scams targeting unsuspecting individuals. Some said they never received the promised salaries, while others reported that their passports had been confiscated.

According to the repatriates, their recruitment began with job advertisements posted on Facebook and Telegram job-hunting groups. They were then contacted by individuals who facilitated their departure from the Philippines and their arrival in Malaysia. The BI said these facilitators were reportedly Filipino and Chinese or Malaysian nationals.

The “backdoor” route

I-PROBES found that five of the six had allegedly left the Philippines through the so-called “backdoor” route connecting Zamboanga and Tawi-Tawi to Sabah, bypassing regular immigration departure procedures. The BI Anti-Fraud Section determined that four of the returnees had genuine Philippine passports bearing counterfeit departure stamps.

The bureau warned that traffickers have used the backdoor route to evade immigration inspection, and cautioned the public against using counterfeit immigration stamps and other fraudulent travel documents. BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado urged Filipinos to be careful with overseas job offers:

Do not be lured by promises of high salaries into jobs that could put your life and freedom at risk. Criminal groups use attractive job offers to deceive Filipinos, bring them abroad through irregular channels, and force them into illegal activities.

All six were turned over to the NAIA Task Force Against Trafficking for assistance and further investigation into their recruitment and the people who allegedly facilitated their travel.

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