9 arrested for voice phishing scam in Cavite 

Nine people were arrested in General Trias, Cavite on Wednesday evening for their alleged involvement in a voice phishing scam.

“Ang mga arestado ay parte ng isang malaking sindikato at may mataas pa dito at yun ay patuloy na hahanapin natin,” Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group acting director Police Brigadier General Ronnie Cariaga said in Jun Veneracion’s report on “24 Oras” on Thursday. 

(Those who were arrested were part of a big syndicate and there is still someone bigger than them, whom we are still looking for.) 

In the scam, the perpetrators call their intended victims pretending to be bank personnel, and tell them that they can convert their credit card points into cash. 

They ask the victims to give them the one-time PIN provided by the banks, then use the PIN to clean out the victim's bank account.

Authorities seized cell phones and registered SIMs from the victims, the report said. Although they were registered, the SIMs were not in the suspects' names. 

Bank documents were also discovered by the law enforcers that included the contact details of their victims, who are mostly elderly people. 

The PNP is not ruling out the possibility that the suspects could be conniving with someone from the bank. 

“Itong mga information na ito ay mga bank information ito. So ang tanong paano ito na acquire ng mga taong ito. And we’ll be asking the banks they should investigate also, hindi dapat nila iasa sa law enforcement,” said PNP-ACG Cyber Response Unit chief Police Colonel Jay Guillermo. 

(These are bank information, so how come these people were able to get a hand on these. And we’ll be asking the banks to investigate also because and not to solely rely on the law enforcement.) 

According to PNP-ACG’s investigation, the group has been operating since 2021 and has been earning around P5 million a month. 

The PNP will file a case against the suspects for violating the Access Devices Regulation Act. The possibility of filing a case for economic sabotage is also being mulled, the report said. 

The PNP has received 99 complaints on voice phishing from January to November 2023. — Vince Angelo Ferreras/BM, GMA Integrated News