The National Bureau of Investigation recently made arrests involving a Malaysian individual and 11 Filipinos over an alleged scheme of leasing SIM cards paired with verified GCash accounts, as revealed by the NBI.
During operations conducted across Quezon City, Manila, and Parañaque on November 9 to 10, Lau Wen Xiang and the 11 Filipinos were apprehended by the NBI’s Anti-Organized and Transnational Crime Division.
Alongside seizing 50,000 SIM cards, the bureau confiscated 13 desktop computers, 40 GSM modems (text blasters), 57 cell phones, and a laptop.
This crackdown initiated based on intelligence gathered from Facebook posts seeking GCash account holders with a PHP500,000 limit, willing to rent their accounts.
A tempting offer of PHP2,000 upfront and an additional PHP2,000 monthly was made to these account holders, intending to use their accounts for casino-related load transactions.
The accused now face charges for violating several laws, including the Access Devices Act of 1998, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 related to computer-related forgery, and the SIM Card Registration Act of 2020.
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via Philstar.com
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