NBI nabs 31 more Chinese in Parañaque cybercrime raid

More than a month after the deportation of 297 Chinese and Taiwanese nationals for alleged involvement in cybercrimes, 31 more Chinese suspects were arrested for similar scams in a raid in Parañaque City by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday.

NBI Director Nonnatus Rojas said the 31 foreigners are now detained at the NBI headquarters in Manila on charges of computer identity theft and violation of the Access Devices Regulation Act.

Rojas said the raid was conducted on the suspects’ alleged base of operations, a two-story house at 70 D. Tuazon Street in Parañaque City, after the bureau obtained a search warrant from Judge Rainelda Estacio of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46.

The NBI chief said the bureau’s Technical Intelligence Division headed by Palmer Mallari conducted surveillance operations on the Chinese, leading the agents to their rented house.

He said TID agents seized various telecommunications gadgets and other equipment that the suspects purportedly used in the scam.

According to Mallari, the suspects pretended that they were officials of the Chinese police, prosecutor’s office, courts, insurance companies, banks and other financial institutions.

They then fabricated charges against their victims and threatened them with arrest while offering supposed “remedies.” They will then ask for the victims’ bank account and credit card numbers, he said.

Seized from the raided house were assorted credit cards, routers, laptops, telephones, Internet broadband equipment, signal decoders, and documents in Chinese.—Nancy C. Carvajal