{"id":777023459,"date":"2025-02-27T09:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T12:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777023459"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:23:22","slug":"401-arrested-in-raid-on-scam-hub-in-pasay-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/401-arrested-in-raid-on-scam-hub-in-pasay-city","title":{"rendered":"401 arrested in raid on scam hub in Pasay City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Those arrested included nationals from eight countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- <strong>The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC)<\/strong> has arrested <strong>401 foreign nationals<\/strong> (207 Chinese, 132 Vietnamese, 24 Koreans, 11 Malaysians, 14 Indonesians, 12 Myanmar nationals, and one person from Madagascar), in a raid on a scam operator in Pasay City. Some <strong>52 Filipino workers<\/strong> were also found at the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The PAOCC, along with the Pasay City government, the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP CIDG), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Cybercrime, found the operation at One Wheels Condominiums. They said a range of fraudulent activities were being operated, including cryptocurrency fraud, love scams and investment scams. Investigators found text blasters, one-time password generators, and cold crypto wallets. The majority of the scams were conducted through messaging platforms like Viber and Telegram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pasay City government issued a cease and desist order to shut down the operation for lack of a business permit and violations of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.&#8217;s ban on offshore gaming operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"POGO hub na sangkot sa iba&#039;t ibang scam, nabisto sa Pasay City | Frontline Tonight\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EKqfvNnz5WU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A week ago, <strong>Winston Casio<\/strong>, director and spokesperson for PAOCC, said that the southern part of Metro Manila, including Pasay, Para\u00f1aque, and Makati, remained a hotspot for illegal offshore gaming operators. Casio said the PAOCC was gathering evidence against local government units (LGUs) after\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-authorities-raid-illegal-gambling-operation-in-pasay-city\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">raids on offshore gaming operators<\/a>\u00a0in their areas and investigating whether officials might be responsible for allowing the operations to continue. Casio did not mention any probe for Para\u00f1aque or Makati.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n<div class=\"related-article\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/10\/shutterstock_344620688s-300x200.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\"><span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/police-working-to-tackle-illegal-offshore-gaming-operators-pnp-chief-says\">Police working to tackle illegal offshore gaming operators, PNP chief says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Those arrested included nationals from eight countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777011924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Philippine authorities, led by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), raided a large-scale scam operation in Pasay City, arresting 401 foreign nationals and 52 Filipino workers. The illicit enterprise, which included cryptocurrency and investment fraud, operated without permits and violated the presidential ban on illegal offshore gaming operators. PAOCC is now investigating local government units for potential complicity in these illicit activities.","focusai_entities":"Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), Pasay City government, Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP CIDG), Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Cybercrime, Winston Casio, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.","focusai_location":"Philippines, Pasay City, Metro Manila, Para\u00f1aque, Makati","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.95), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"LGU Accountability Scope","query":"What specific governance frameworks or regulatory oversights are being reviewed by PAOCC to determine LGU complicity in facilitating illegal offshore gaming or scam operations?"},{"label":"Impact on Legitimate iGaming","query":"How might this crackdown on illicit operations, particularly those masquerading as offshore gaming, influence the regulatory landscape and licensing processes for legitimate iGaming operators in the Philippines?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[20326],"class_list":["post-777023459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-illegal-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777023459"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777023476,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023459\/revisions\/777023476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777011924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777023459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777023459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777023459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}