MANILA — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is investigating an alleged scam hub in Cebu that went viral on social media. 

The video, which now has more than 1.7 million views on YouTube as of posting, showed CCTV footage and audio recordings inside the alleged scam hub manned by Filipinos. 

The Filipinos were allegedly targeting foreign nationals from South Africa.

It also showed how they operated by allegedly extorting people in an investment scam through a fake website.

DICT spokesperson Assistant Secretary Renato Paraiso said in a press conference that they have the profiles and information of some of the individuals who were caught on the said video, which was uploaded under the username "mrwn".

"Itong scam hub na ito operates in the Philippines, particularly in Cebu. Their victims are from outside the country. They were scamming persons in South Africa. It's an investment scam, they are asking people to invest in an AI company of sorts," said Paraiso.

"We'll have to investigate further, but the investigation of 'mrwn', has provided good leads and in fact we have several persons of interest already that we would pursue our investigation," he added.

 TV PATROL: 27 dayuhan timbog scam hubs sa Bataan, Cebu City

He also revealed that the said hub was earning around 800,000 US dollars annually by scamming foreigners.

"According to the calculation of the content creator, this is a 800,000 [US] dollars a year industry," said Paraiso.

The agency also said that while the victims of the hub are foreigners living abroad, the suspects involved can still face criminal charges here in the Philippines.

"We recognize there would be gaps in the laws but we are exploring to utilize the provisions of the newly passed, Anti-financial scams law, Online transactions act, as well as the law that created the CICC, the Cyber crime prevention act of 2022," said Paraiso.

They will also be looking into possible lapses of the local government units where these hubs are operating.

"That would be part of the investigation and part of the report that we would be submitting to our secretary and various secretaries. If there would lapses that we would see, in the issuance of certain permits that allow this scam hubs to operate, then it is only fair it should be included in the report," Paraiso said.

The Cebu City Police Office closed the said scam hub on Tuesday afternoon in Barangay Kasambagan.

Police Colonel Enrico Figueroa, City Director of the Police Office, said that they were able to trace the exact location of the hub on the video through their intelligence personnel.

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DICT TASK FORCE

The DICT will also form a task force dedicated to monitoring and apprehending those involved in different scam hubs and other cyber crimes.

"We will be partnering up with our law enforcement agencies, PNP Cyber crime group. Just this morning I had a meeting with General Yang to strengthen that partnership. We will have constant meetings with the NBI as well. These agencies including the DOJ Office of Cybercrime are part of this cybercrime investigation and coordination council (CICC)," he said.

"We are in the works of making a joint memorandum circular to create a joint task force to focus on fake news, troll farms, illegal online gambling and scam hubs," he added

 DIGITAL BAYANIHAN

Aside from partnering with government agencies, Paraiso said that they are also open to collaborating with other private groups and individuals that have information on these illegal activities.

"We want to reject the notion that the Philippine Government does not act in the face of adversity... we will make sure that whatever investigations you have, whatever findings you have we will investigate it. Encouraging all of you, content creators which is exposing these scam hubs as your contents, to reach out to us and we will partner up with you to put a stop to these illegal activities. This the spirit of the digital bayanihan of the DICT and the CICC," he said.

"We encourage our foreign friends that if you have any proof or any investigation that leads you to scam hub here in the Philippines, rest assured that we will follow up on them we will act on them. We would see to it that these criminals will face the full force of the law. We welcome partnership with private individuals as well, civic groups, ethical hackers, white hats, who share our goal in stopping cybercrime," he added.

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The DICT, however, clarified that they do not tolerate hacking.

"On that aspect, we don't condone (hacking) but in his video he said that he's taking matters into his own hands because he reached out to government agencies and apparently he didn't like the response of government," Paraiso explained. 

"So instead of stepping in and taking matters into their own hands, they [content creators] now have a willing partner in government that would share their advocacy and goal to put a stop to these scammers," he added.