Philippines Deports 29 Indonesians Linked to Online Scam Syndicate in Manila

Philippine scam news, when Indonesian police brought back 29 people sent home from the Philippines. They were caught up in a group running online scams and gambling from Kanlaon Tower in Pasay City, Manila. Brig. Gen. Untung Widyatmoko, a big officer from Indonesias Interpol, shared the news. “They got arrested by Philippine police for doing online gambling and scams,” he said. The Indonesian Embassy in Manila worked hard to get them back home by Saturday night, just before midnight.

Now that they‘re back in Indonesia, the police will check them out more. “We’ll look into the group they worked with and figure out who‘s a victim and who’s a bad guy among the 29,” Untung said.

This isnt the first time something like this happened. Just a few weeks ago, Indonesia saved 554 of its people—449 men and 105 women—from scam groups in Myanmar. They were tricked with promises of good jobs in Thailand and nearby countries but ended up stuck in tough situations, like slaves online. They were part of over 7,000 people rescued with help from Chinese, Thai, and Myanmar teams.

Records from the government say that from 2020 to 2023, more than 4,700 Indonesians got pulled out of these cybercrime groups in places like Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

Here in the Philippines, we‘re dealing with the same mess. These scam groups don’t just trick foreigners—they also drag Filipinos into their plans, making it hard to tell who‘s a victim and who’s helping. The Kanlaon Tower mess shows how Manila has turned into a center for these shady groups, and the police are trying hard to stop them. But its not just Manila—the problem spreads out to other places, hitting Filipino workers hard.

Love Scam Bust in Bacolod City

In Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, the battle against online scams got serious. On March 28, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) filed big charges—human trafficking, which means no bail—against two Malaysians tied to a “love scam.” They were caught the day before in Henrietta Village, Barangay Singcang-Airport. The suspects, called “Sam Phoon,” 60, and “Abao,” in his late 20s, didnt have their real names shared because of police rules. Police Maj. Justin Noel Josol, the CIDG boss in Bacolod, said these two, who had expired visas, had been running fake dating sites for foreigners for over a year. “The Malaysians ran fake online dating sites with foreign clients,” he told reporters on March 29.

Here‘s how they did it: they paid local models to take sexy pictures, then hired 110 Filipinos to act as “sales representatives.” These workers got scripts to pretend they were the models, chatting with foreigners on the sites. They had to hit a target number of people each month. Later, most worked from home to keep things secret. But people started complaining—they weren’t paid enough and were treated badly, like they were being used.

The CIDG jumped in after someone who used to work there tipped them off. They watched for over a month, got a search warrant, and teamed up with the Bacolod City Police and the Department of Social Services and Development to raid the place and grab the two foreigners. This shows a tough truth for the Philippines—these scam groups aren‘t just a problem from the outside; they’re hurting Filipinos too, bringing trafficking and lies to places like Bacolod. As the police keep fighting, the pain these scams cause still worries everyone here.