Philippines becomes host of 'love scam' centre, hundreds rescued so far

The police in the Philippines rescued hundreds of people from a scam centre where they were forced to pose as lovers online.

The police claimed that they conducted the raid on the centre on Thursday (Mar 14) and rescued 383 Filipinos, 202 Chinese and 73 other foreign nationals.

They added that the centre, which is located around 100km north of Manila, was posing as an online gambling firm.

The raid, which was carried out near Manila, took place after the police received a tip-off from a Vietnamese man who was able to escape from the scam centre last month.

The man, who was in his 30s, reached the Philippines in January after he was offered a chef's job, said Winston Casio, who is the spokesperson for the Presidential Commission against organised crime.

However, soon the man realised that, like many others, he had been human trafficked for running cryptocurrency and love scams.

The people, who were trapped in the Bamban centre, had to send "sweet nothings" to their victims, a lot of whom were Chinese. 

As per Casio, the people would keep a tab on their targets and ask them about their day and questions like what they ate in their last meal. The men and women would also share their photographs with the targets for cultivating relationships.

Casio added that the people running the scam centres trapped "good-looking men and women to lure [victims]".

On February 28, the Vietnamese man managed to escape the facility by jumping across a wall, crossing a river, and finally seeking refuge at a farm. Then, the farm owner reported the incident to the police.

Casio said that signs of torture were also visible on the man, which included marks from electrocution and scars.

South East Asia has been turning into a hub for such scam centres where the scammers are generally entrapped and forced to commit such criminal activities.