Makati-based firm busted for illegal int’l calls, Net connections

A MAKATI City-based web development firm and call center has been busted for engaging in illegal activities estimated to have defrauded a leading telecommunications firm of around P700,000 a month.

The Philippine National Police-Anti Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) raided on Monday TechResource Inc. in Salcedo Village, Makati City, and arrested 11 people—Japanese manager Yusuke Otani and 10 Filipino employees—for cracking local SIM (subscriber identity module) cards and using these for illegal international calls and Internet surfing.

PNP-ACG director Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar explained on Tuesday that through the use of the SIM cards and a computer system, the Japanese-run firm was able to convert international calls to domestic calls, an illegal activity called “International Simple Resale.”

More than a hundred SIM cards were seized during the raid with another 40 inserted into a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) gateway which processes international phone or VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls.

Eleazar noted that the gateway even had built-in signal jammers, apparently to “control signals” from the telecommunications network’s nearest cell sites.

The firm was also found to have used SIM cards with unauthorized free 24/7 Internet connection.

Eleazar said the local telecommunications network, which he declined to name,  sought the PNP-ACG’s help for stopping TechResource’s illegal activities which had caused it to lose at least P700,000 a month in revenues.

The raid was conducted on the strength of a search warrant issued by Judge Zaldy B. Docena of the Malabon Regional Trial Court Branch 170.