NBI arrests 7 Chinese citizens for fraud, bribery 

Seven Chinese citizens have been arrested for credit card fraud and bribing agents of the National Bureau of Investigation, the NBI said Tuesday. 

According to the bureau, operatives of the NBI-Cybercrime Division arrested the seven foreigners, classified as a transnational organized crime (TOC) group, in separate operations in Parañaque and Quezon City on July 27.

This was after the NBI received multiple complaints against the foreigners, accusing them of vishing, smishing, phishing, click-baiting, pretexting, and whaling, which resulted in unauthorized or illegal access and eventual utilization of their credit card credentials without their knowledge.

The NBI said the group would cash out money through socially engineered credit card credentials from the accounts of their victims. It said the group would need a point-of-sale (POS) device to expedite cashing out.

During the operation, poseur-accomplices pretended to possess a POS device. They then agreed to meet for the scheme to materialize.

This led to the arrest of two Chinese citizens during an entrapment operation in Parañaque on July 27.

One of them attempted to bribe the operatives several times and offered P1.5 million for their release and the termination of the charges against them.

The operatives pretended to agree to the offer and conducted another entrapment operation.

In the evening of the same day, two vehicles arrived at the parking lot of the NBI main office in Quezon City for the exchange.

The NBI said that after one Chinese-looking individual gave a bag of money, the operatives arrested him along with his cohorts inside the vehicles.

Authorities retrieved three handguns with a military-grade smoke grenade from the vehicle. The arrested individuals were unable to provide licenses and papers for the firearms.

According to the NBI, two Chinese individuals identified as Sun Jie and Lee Ching Ho were charged with violations of Section 3(s) of Republic Act 11449 (Access Devices Regulation Act) and Article 212 of the Revised Penal Code (Corruption of Public Officials).

Five others (Jenny Pan, Zhao Zheng, Dong Jianhua, Yuan Bien, and Shao Wen Hu) were charged with violations of Article 212 of the Revised Penal Code and RA 10591 (Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act). —VBL, GMA Integrated News