Filipinos who once worked for offshore gaming operators are turning to online scams, law enforcement officials have warned, amid signs that the industry’s shutdown has given way to a more fragmented and harder-to-police criminal landscape.
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Many of those recently arrested for cybercrime offences had “branched out on their own”, using skills they had gained while working at Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), according to Brigadier General Bernard Yang, head of the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group.
“At this point, we cannot really say that these scam activities are still linked to Pogos,” Yang told a media forum on Wednesday. “Based on our statistics, they probably worked [for them] before, but after Pogos shut down, they picked it up and are now doing it independently.”
The former Pogo workers were likely using devices they had retrieved from the scam hubs in their operations, he added.
Pogos are gaming firms that cater mainly to overseas Chinese clientele. Raids by local authorities have uncovered their links to alleged crimes such as human trafficking and scams.
Yang added that based on their recent arrests this year, most of them were Filipinos. A total of 5,099 people were arrested for cybercrimes from January to mid-June. Police said 608 were arrested in entrapment operations, with seven being foreign nationals. The cybercrime chief did not provide a breakdown of arrests made specifically for online scams.