On Thursday, authorities rescued hundreds of people in the Philippines who fell victim to a scam ring that forced them to pose as lovers online.
Police raided the scam center near Manila and rescued 383 Filipinos, 202 Chinese, and 73 foreign nationals. The center had been masquerading as a gambling firm, according to the BBC.
A Vietnamese man had escaped from the Bamban center on February 28. He climbed up a wall, crossed a river, and sought refuge at a farm. The farm owners alerted authorities to the situation, which sparked the raid, per the BBC.
The man, who is in his 30s, told authorities that he arrived in the Philippines in January after being offered a job as a chef. However, he fell prey to human traffickers conducting an online love and cryptocurrency scam ring instead, according to Winston Casio, spokesman for the presidential commission against organized crime.
Casio said that those trapped in the Bamban center were compelled to send “sweet nothings” to their victims, many of whom were Chinese. The purpose of the correspondence was to ask questions about the person’s day and their most recent meal. Additionally, they would exchange selfie-style photos in an effort to strengthen their bond.
The spokesman said that the scam center trapped “good-looking men and women to lure [victims].”
Signs of torture had been discovered on the man’s arm, which included marks and scars from electrocution. Several others also tried to escape the facility but were caught, according to Casio.
During the raid, police seized ammunition and multiple firearms from the center. This included a 9mm pistol, two .38 caliber revolvers, and 42 rounds of live ammunition.
In what is still their largest bust to date, Philippine authorities in May of last year freed over a thousand people who were being held captive and coerced into conducting online scams inside a freeport zone in Clark, a city located to the north of Manila.
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