The Bureau of Immigration (BI) intercepted four individuals posing as tourists who are aiming to work in fake call centers abroad.

In a press release on Sunday, February 18, the BI said two of the four victims were cousins who were recruited through Facebook to work in Koh Kong, Cambodia.

All of them received a directive to pose as tourists to Thailand for vacation in a bid to trick immigration authorities.

“These individuals have good backgrounds, are tech savvy, yet they chose to be blinded by the offers of these syndicates,” BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said.

The BI said the individuals revealed they were offered a non-voice customer representative job with 800 USD (P44,859) for a monthly salary.

“Hindi ba sila natatakot? Ang pag-alis sa iligal na pamamaraan ay napakalaking risk, lalong lalo na’t alam na natin ang kinahihinatnan ng maraming biktima,” Tansingco added.

He also noted that hundreds of repatriated victims also faced the same modus and ended up in scam hubs that exploited and physically abused them.

“The four victims were turned over to the CIA Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for assistance in filing cases against their recruiters,” the BI’s statement read.