Warning on Internet andText Scams

 

PRESS RELEASE

WARNING ON INTERNET SCAMS OPERATED FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM

Prospective Filipino migrant workers to the United Kingdom continue to fall victims to internet scams operated from the United Kingdom, the Philippine Embassy in London reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila.

In his report, Ambassador Edgardo B. Espiritu noted that criminal syndicates normally claim to be officials from the British Border and Immigration Agency (BIA), a unit of  the British Home Office that oversees management of migration into the United Kingdom. The criminal syndicates carry the official address of the BIA in their internet communications but use email addresses obtained from commercial internet service providers like Yahoo and Hotmail. Payment for their service is then required to be coursed through legitimate commercial money remittance service providers which operate from many cities in the Philippines. Other criminal syndicates use the names of other British or Filipino government agencies in their fraudulent activities.

Filipino workers who have received invitation to work in the United Kingdom through the internet are advised to consult with POEA to verify if the recruitment agency is licensed to deploy workers to the United Kingdom. If payment is being required before deployment, the public is advised to consider the transaction as suspicious and discontinue dealing with the recruiter.

There is an estimated 200,000 Filipinos in the United Kingdom, many of whom are employed as nurses or care givers in the British national health system. The United Kingdom adopted last month its new Point-Based System of managed migration which makes entry into the British workforce by non-EU workers more closely monitored by the authorities.

17 March 2008

Philippine Embassy, Wellington

New Zealand

WARNING ON TEXT SCAM

Some unscrupulous individuals are trying to extort money from Overseas Filipino Workers through a text scam, the Philippine Embassy in Rome and the Anti-Money Laundering Council of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

In view of these reports, all Filipinos overseas are advised to be on guard upon receiving text messages notifying them that they have won millions of pesos in a raffle draw purportedly sponsored by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporaion (PAGCOR), or other institutions.

The swindlers who use fictitious names or pose as government officials, would try to get their victims to remit money to the swindlers or to deposit it in designated bank accounts, supposedly for the payment of tax and other fees, as a precondition to getting the alleged prize. Once the victim remits or deposits the money, the swindlers immediately get the money and the victim will no longer hear from them again.
 
Those who receive such text messages or have been victimized by this scam are advised to immediately report the matter to the Anti-Money Laudering Council Secretariat, 5th Flr, EDPC building, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, Manila, with telephone numbers 302-3982 and 524-7011 loc 2372.

The Department of Foreign Affairs also noted incidents of phone scams notifying the next of kin (NOKs) of OFWs of the death of their loved ones or that he/she is in serious condition. The swindlers usually ask the NOKs to remit a certain amount of money to them for the hospitalization of the OFW or to facilitate the payment of the OFWs death benefits.

This swindling operation uses the names of high ranking Filipino diplomats in order to extort money from the potential victims.

Should they have any doubts about the information provided, NOKs should contact the OFW concerned or any person whom they believe could provide them with information on the former's condition. Such should also be reported to the nearest Philippine Embassy or to the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs (OUMWA) of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila for proper coordination with their NOKs in the Philippines or employers abroad.

NOKs are likewise advised to coordinate all matters concerning death benefits or monetary claims of OFWs with the OUMWA or the nearest Philippine Embassy or Consulate in their area of residence abroad.