The Philippine Police Cybercrime Unit has arrested 8 people suspected of fraudulent Bitcoin transactions. Also arrested were 480 Filipino citizens who worked in a call center through which people were persuaded to make investments. Israel's Foreign Ministry is investigating the case.
Among the victims are citizens of New Zealand, Russia, Australia and South Africa. Two Australian pensioners who were victims of online fraud flew to the Philippines specifically to get their savings back.
“I clicked on an ad for Bitcoin online and immediately received a call asking me to invest $250 in cryptocurrency, later asking for access to a bank account to increase the size of the investment, and as a result they withdrew all the money from all bank cards,” says one of the victims. The second victim lost half a million Australian dollars.
According to the complainants, the scammers created a company and hired Filipino citizens to carry out their activities.
To gain the trust of the victims, enterprising Israelis first transferred them supposedly earned profits, and then defrauded them of funds and bank account information.
The call center employees admitted that they knew how the scheme worked, but were afraid of losing their jobs.
According to the police, the fraudulent company has been operating since 2017 and has 527 employees and even received a license to provide technical services, web design development and search engine optimization.
In response to statements from victims, local authorities initiated an investigation and arrest of the criminals.
According to ynetnews.com
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