Interpol, PNP arrest 58 in global cybersex scam

By AMITA O. LEGASPI, GMA News May 2, 2014 11:34am
140  1  0  202

After six months of surveillance and information sharing, local and international police authorities have arrested 58 people in various parts of Luzon who are suspected of involvement in a global cybersex scam, a senior official announced Friday.

Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima said 52 of the suspects were nabbed in Bicol, three in Laguna and Taguig, and three in Bulacan.

He said the various groups have blackmailed at least 100 victims from different countries.

Senior Supt. Gilbert Sosa, director of the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group, said the group operating in Bicol Region well organized.

He said the group set up the following companies to cover their illegal activities:

“MoneyMaker Portal Web Solutions” located in Naga City
“Moneymagnet Portal Web Solutions” located in Libmanan
“Money Builder Web Marketing Solutions” located in Nabua
“Mocha Bytes Web Solutions” located in Legazpi City

The suspects arrested in Laguna and Taguig City – identified as Vincent Regori Bravo, Archie alias “Gian” Tolin and Jomar Palacio alias “Park Ji Man” – have victims from the United Kingdom.

Those arrested in Bulacan were Aldrin Villamonte, Jemuel C Matuguina, and Emuross Dela Cruz of Brgy. Muzon in San Jose Del Monte. Police are still verifying reports that others from the same barangay were also engaged in sextortion activities.

The modus operandi of the groups is to create online accounts of females and post pictures of attractive ladies to draw clients. They would then post pornographic images and entice their victims to have video chats with them, usually with lewd content and conversation.

Porn as bait

Once they obtain the incriminating videos, the groups would threaten to send the video chats to the victim’s friends or relatives unless they send money.

The victims are allegedly forced to send $500 to $2,000 – or P20,000 to P90,000 – through Western Union in exchange for the removal of the online video chat.
The groups have been operating for three to four years.

Charges of violations of access devices regulation, anti-child pornography law, and cybercrime prevention law, as well as robbery and extortion were filed against the suspects.

Aside from the PNP, others involved in the operation are the Department of Justice, Scotland Police, Interpol, Hong Kong Police, Singapore Police, US Homeland Security Investigation, Child Exploitation Online Protection and Australian Federal Police.

The operation stemmed from the 1st Interpol Eurasion Working Group Meeting in Singapore in November 2013 that highlighted the growing number of sextortion victims in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, United Kingdom and the United States with potential victims in Australia, Korea and Malaysia.

The meeting resulted in the formulation of a joint investigation model to combat the increasing sextortion cases worldwide.

This was followed by intelligence sharing between cybercrime departments of involved countries and some social networking sites that linked victims and cybercrime cases among these countries.

A 2nd Operational Meeting in Singapore was held on March by the Interpol Digital Crime Centre. Payment systems and judicial representatives participated in the meeting.

Some victims are minors

The victims of sextortion activities are not just “old men” but minors, as well.

One of them was a 17-year-old boy from Scotland who jumped to his death in July 2013.

“This is real human tragedy behind this crime. They threatened that they will expose him and that he was talking to a man and not a girl. You can imagine this poor individual, he felt that he was nowhere to turn and sadly he jumped off a very high bridge into the sea,” United Kingdom Ambassador Asif Ahmad told GMA News Online.

Asked if the extortionist involved is from the Philippines, he said the suspect is now being investigated.

He said the boy was targeted through social networking and he was tricked into thinking that he was communicating with his new girlfriend.

“They said ‘we would expose you to these people so all of your friends would know what you have been doing, so give us some money.’ But because he has no money, he was a teenager, so instead of going for help he chose, sadly, to jump of Forth Road Bridge in Scotland,” said Ahmad.

Asked how many have been victimized by sextortion activities, the ambassador said he cannot give an exact figure as many of the victims refuse to speak up.

“Actually, why is it so difficult capture (the figure)… Firstly, many victims don’t ever speak up and don’t even say who they are. What you can see is the traffic of illicit data that goes into millions and the direction of this is global,” he said.

“I personally believe that we are not just talking about a handful of people, we are talking about thousands and thousands of people and if we don’t take action, it will grow,” he said.

Not only in the Philippines

He clarified that sextortion activities are not exclusive to the Philippines.

“This is not a Philippine-centric problem. If you look at the world data map, there is as big a problem in the United Kingdom itself, in the United States, in Germany. If you look at Southeast Asia, where there is an Internet connection, this problem exists. It respects no nationality or border,” said Ahmad.

Sanjay Virmani, Interpol Digital Crime Centre director, said while the arrests were made in the Philippines, the crime is not limited to any one country.

“The scale of these sextortion methods is massive with just one goal in mind: to make money regardless of the terrible emotional damage they inflict on their victims,” he said.

Ahmad said that cyberbullying takes place in different ways.

“People are not just after money, some people are after just bullying people, some people are just trying to get a…masochistic kick out of it, some people are pedophiles who are trying to use blackmail to get people,” he said.

“It is not a single motivation here, there are many but the important thing is how we are able to collaborate across national boundaries and bringing this people to justice,” Ahmad added. -KG, GMA News -KG/JDS, GMA News