In the past, the most feared criminal group was the mafia. Oh, were they the stuff of memorable movies and novels!
In our part of the world, it was the yakuza, the legendary underworld group, some of whose members were identified by their missing pinkies.
Today, it is the scam syndicates, and they operate across borders in two spheres: the physical and the virtual. They are no longer defined by geography as their victims are spread in many parts of the world.
What is most alarming is the amount of money stolen by online scamming. The Economist reports that over $500 billion a year are siphoned off from victims all around the world, comparable to the “size and scope of the illegal drug industry.” The magazine warns that this global industry is worse: “One reason is that everyone becomes a potential target simply by going about their lives.”
One estimate puts the number of workers employed by scam syndicates worldwide at 1.5 million. Many of them are forced labor, trafficked from countries like the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. They are lured by false ads for lucrative high-tech jobs and, in what has become a familiar story, they are illegally brought to scam farms or compounds in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and, yes, our country. Like slaves, they are detained in tightly guarded buildings in vast compounds, forced to meet quotas — otherwise they are tortured.
As of last year, around 400 of these criminal enterprises operated in the Philippines alone. They did their business clandestinely and illegally alongside legal and licensed online gaming operations.
Origin: China
In a 2024 study, the US Institute of Peace (USIP) found that Southeast Asia has become a major breeding ground for transnational criminal networks such as these sophisticated scam syndicates originating predominantly from China. They prey on weak governance and poor law enforcement. Host countries usually leave online gambling unregulated.
“Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos form the epicenter of the regional scamming industry,” the USIP wrote. “But most countries in some form contribute to the operations of criminal networks, facilitating illegal trafficking of forced labor into scam centers, providing a financial base for laundering the proceeds from illicit activity…”
‘Pig butchering’
How does this scam work?
It’s called “pig butchering,” sometimes referred to as a love scam. “Pig butchering” is a translation from the Chinese term shu zhu pan. The “pig” is a victim to be fattened up — by cultivating trust and preying on his or her emotions — ready to be slaughtered. The scammers then steal as much money as possible by urging the victim to invest in cryptocurrency using a fake trading platform.
According to the US-based National Cybersecurity Alliance, this phenomenon was first identified in China in the late 2010s, perpetrated by fraud networks that targeted Chinese offshore gamblers.
They begin with accidental text messages on messaging apps or on social media platforms including LinkedIn. The scammers use false profiles, attractive photos and, following a script, they lure victims by pouring large doses of attention on them, kindling romance, many of whom are lonely hearts.
Who would imagine that, at the other end of the line, are scammers who are victims themselves?
Bamban and Porac
We’ve seen such scam compounds in Bamban, Tarlac and Porac, Pampanga, also the hub of POGOs or Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators. Here are photos of the Bamban POGO, after it was raided, from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes.
The face of the Bamban POGO, a 10-hectare sprawl of 30 buildings, was then-mayor Alice Guo. As an elected public official, she had the perfect cover for her illicit operations. More than $400 million passed through her bank accounts in 2023 and 2024.
In Porac, police who raided a POGO compound, Lucky South 99, found a torture room and evidence that the POGO was also operating a scam center. The area spanned around 10 hectares and had 46 buildings including POGO offices, dormitories, restaurants, barbershop, clinic, grocery store, private villas, and a golf course.
A Chinese national who was rescued, Yu Zhou Jing, was forced to scam fellow Chinese. Yu told Rappler, through an interpreter, that he was tortured because he wanted to leave Lucky South 99. He showed his bruises. “One guy stepped on his arm, another stepped on his head to prevent him from moving,” the interpreter said, as narrated by Yu. He was beaten, using a stick and electric baton.
Singapore model
Singapore’s anti-scam approach has become a model in fighting this scourge. Last year, it set up a 24/7 hotline which connects callers to seven major banks in Singapore if people suspect they have been scammed and want to freeze their bank accounts, Channel News Asia reported.
The hotline is just one part of a whole suite of responses from law-enforcement authorities. Last December, the police’s Anti-Scam Center worked with two banks to stop the release of more than $280,000 to scammers.
On the personal side, we have to sharpen our scam radars and keep our alert levels high. Recently, I had one close call with scammers (not of the “pig butchering” type) — yet I thought that I knew enough to be able to spot it.
Let me know what you think. You can email me at marites.vitug@rappler.com.
Till next newsletter.