MANILA -- The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Tuesday said it is monitoring several scam hubs masquerading as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies in the country. 

This was after a recent viral video showing a scam hub in Cebu where Filipino workers were targeting foreign nationals in South Africa. The said video also showed how they operated by extorting foreigners in an investment scam through a fake website.

"We are monitoring several BPOs, before it was POGOs, they were masking as POGOs, now we are training our eyes in BPOs, scam hubs masking as BPOs," DICT spokesperson Assistant Secretary Renato Paraiso, said in a press conference.

The DICT did not divulge the data on how many of these hubs are posing as BPOs but revealed that most of them are in highly urbanized areas.

"What I can say they are more highly urbanized, in locations where the internet is strong and there is a workforce surrounding them," said Paraiso.

They will also be looking into possible lapses of the local government units where these scam 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 were lapses that we would see, in the issuance of certain permits that allow these scam hubs to operate, then it is only fair that it should be included in the report," Paraiso said.

'SPIES' WORKING IN TELCO

Meanwhile, DICT said it will investigate allegations of Chinese nationals with expired visas working at a telecommunications company in the country.

"The CICC and the DICT will formally do an investigation. We will also reach out to our counterparts in the bureau of immigrations because the first allegation is the over extension of visas, but since this is a telco were talking about, our attached agency which is the NTC would also be an active partner in this investigation," DICT Spokesperson Assistant Secretary Renato "Aboy" Paraiso, said in a press conference this afternoon, Tuesday.

The statement comes after an online post from a journalist revealed information that around 400 Chinese from Mainland China are allegedly holding various executive positions in a telco company, and have access to personal information from all of its customers.

The said Chinese executives have also reportedly over-extended their stay in the country, with their tourist visas.

There’s no statement yet from the telco company regarding this issue, as of this posting.