By Ferdinand Patinio
MANILA – Two persons pretending to be officemates on vacation were recently stopped by Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay City.
The BI said the women, aged 25 and 31, attempted to pass themselves off as call center agents for a business process outsourcing firm in Quezon City, and were traveling for tourism to Bangkok, Thailand last Feb. 13.
However, upon presenting their documents, BI officers noted inconsistencies that contradicted their initial statements.
Both later admitted that they were not really officemates, but were actually recruited to work in Laos, where they would take up customer service representative (CSR) positions and promised a monthly salary of PHP50,000.
They added that they have paid PHP3,000 to a fixer they met on social media to produce documents to make it seem like they were officemates.
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado warned the public about scam hubs in Asian countries, targeting Filipinos to work as CSRs.
“We strongly advise Filipinos to be cautious when accepting job offers abroad, especially those that seem too good to be true,” he said in a statement.
“Many of these so-called call center jobs turn out to be fronts for large-scale scam operations that exploit and endanger our fellow countrymen.”
The victims were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for further investigation. (PNA)
