14 Pinoys, 6 Koreans nabbed in Pasay over alleged POGO, scam

Authorities arrested 14 Filipinos and six Koreans for allegedly operating an illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) and running a scam, GMA Integrated News’ Unang Balita reported on Tuesday. 

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) implemented a mission order in an office located in the basement of a hotel in Pasay City in coordination with other concerned government agencies, according to a report of Saleema Refran. 

The office was allegedly running a POGO and scam operations, based on the intelligence from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Philippine National Police - Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG). 

“We’ve been hearing Korean POGOs for a long time but this is the first time we get actual Koreans running an offshore gaming operations,” PAOCC spokesperson Winston Casio said.

“Papakagatin ka nila, papatayain ka nila, mananalo ka. Then you keep on loading up to ?200,000. Kapag ?200,000 na 'yung bet money mo bigla kang ika-cut so may scamming, may betting,” he added.

(They will set a bait, make you place a bet, and they will let you win. But when your bet money reaches ?200,000, you will be cut suddenly, so there is scamming and betting.)

The Korean police also helped in the operation.

“Sa data po namin sa Fugitive Search Unit (FSU), ang Number 1 po naming arrest in terms of fugitive lang ay Korean. Number 2 lang 'yung Chinese,” BI FSU chief Rendel Ryan Sy said. 

(In our data at the Fugitive Search Unit (FSU), our Number 1 arrest in terms of fugitives is Korean. Chinese is only Number 2.)

The Korean nationals will be charged with immigration violations while the Filipinos will be under investigation, according to authorities. 

Aside from computers, authorities also seized small gadgets that generate one-time passwords (OTP). 

 “Ito yung nagpo-produce ng OTP. Dito naka-store yun. Ngayon, 'yung mga transaction nila dito naka-save so kailangan nila ito every time na magbubukas sila ng computer,” PAOCC executive director Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz said. 

(This is the one that produces OTP. It is stored here. Now, their transactions are saved here so they need it every time they open the computer.)

“For every computer, talagang may designated OTP. So 'yung mga cryptowallet transactions nandito lahat. 'Yung pinaka-number para makapasok sila,” he added.

(For every computer, there is a designated OTP. So the cryptowallet transactions are all here. The code that they need to get in.)

According to Cruz, the operation of the alleged illegal POGO involved billions of money. In one computer alone, Cruz said amounts like ?7 million, ?2 million, and ?320,000 were seen in the record. 

One of the nabbed Koreans said he did not know the type of operation the office was running. Meanwhile, one of the arrested Filipinos said she was not aware that POGOs are prohibited. —Joviland Rita/AOL, GMA Integrated News