The Bureau of Immigration logo is superimposed over the airport scene. INQUIRER.net FILES
MANILA, Philippines —Crypto scammers have set their sights on young, urban professionals with the financial means to travel abroad.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) recently raised the alarm after the rescue of eight Filipinos from a crypto-trafficking ring in Myanmar.
According to the BI, the four male victims were recruited online and were flown from Dubai to Thailand for a high-paying job but were later sent to Myanmar.
One of the male victims is a registered overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Dubai who left in 2019, while the three others previously left as tourists in 2016, 2019, and 2021 to visit their families but have not returned since.
Meanwhile, the BI said two female victims had previous short-term travels, with one even traveling with her husband.
The other two were able to depart the country after having established personal capacity and local employment.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that based on the latest victims, traffickers might target “highly-educated professionals” who would be vulnerable because they are exploring job opportunities online.
“This is a new form of trafficking that targets young, urban professionals who have the capacity to travel abroad,” Tansingco said in a statement on Tuesday
“These highly educated professionals would not even think that they would be vulnerable and be trafficked, as they are merely exploring opportunities that they may have encountered online,” he added.
Under the trafficking scheme, victims were instructed to establish relationships with their targets online and lure them to invest in a fictitious cryptocurrency account, where they are blackmailed with physical punishment if they cannot con enough people.
Tansingco expressed his frustration at this new form of human trafficking.
“Professionals are now being lured by promises of good salaries and other incentives, only to be embroiled in this scam,” the BI chief said.
The agency then reminded Filipinos in the Philippines and outside the country to be careful of job postings they see on the internet and to be certain they are working legally. – Meralyn Melitante, Inquirer.net trainee