The Bureau of Immigration (BI) intercepted another victim of a mail-order bride scheme on Tuesday, March 5.

In a press release, BI reported intercepting a China-bound 20-year-old victim by the agency’s immigration protection and border enforcement section. She was with a 34-year-old Chinese man.

“The immigration officer said both the victim and the suspect acted very suspiciously when asked about their supposed marriage,” BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said, noting the inconsistencies in the passengers’ statements.

“However, our officers were alert enough to be suspicious of their statements, having seen several cases like it before,” Tansingco added.

The victim confessed that an actual wedding did not happen, and the marriage certificate presented as genuine was processed by the Chinese man through an agent with whom they paid P45,000 for the processing.

“This is obviously another case of the mail order bride scheme that has resurfaced recently,” the BI commissioner said.

“In these scheme, victims are made to pretend to be the spouse of a foreign national, but they end up as pseudo wives doing domestic work in their destination,” he added.