NBI nabs 6 Chinese for alleged involvement in cyber-related scams

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MANILA, Philippines — Authorities arrested six Chinese nationals for alleged cyber-related scams in an operation in Angeles City, Pampanga, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said on Friday.

In a statement, the NBI said its Cybercrime Division received a letter from the Naval Intelligence and Security Group requesting assistance for the validation and service of warrants against Guo Jinxie, Zhangxiao Feng, and Lo Hsing Hung.

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The three subjects have outstanding warrants of arrest from the Regional Trial Court Branch 296 in Parañaque City for alleged qualified trafficking in persons under Section 4(J) in relation to Section 6 of Republic Act (RA) No. 9208, as amended by RA 10364, or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012.

Operatives conducted an operation last August 14 to serve the warrant to one of the subjects, Zhangxiao Feng, at D’Heights Resort Golf and Country Club.

However, the subject was not in the premises during the implementation of the warrant.

Despite that, operatives were able to discover various desktop computers, cellular phones, SIM cards, several scripts, and customer ledgers on site.

The NBI said romance scam scripts, messaging applications with fake accounts, bank accounts, and fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platforms were also discovered upon examination of the desktop’s interface.

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“There being a crime committed in the presence of the operatives, six (6) Chinese nationals namely: XIAOJUN WANG, XUE FENG ZHANG, KE XIN GE, DIE LIU, YU JIE WANG, and HONG HONG ZHU were arrested in flagrante delicto for violation of Computer-Related Forgery under RA No. 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012), Social Engineering Schemes under Section 4(b)(1) and Economic Sabotage under Section 4(c)(1) of RA No. 12010 (Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act) in relation to RA No. 10175,” it said.

“Arrested Subjects were presented for inquest proceedings before the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the above-said violations of law,” it added.