Bureau of Immigration Halts Two Filipinos En Route to Scam Operation in Laos

In a recent incident at Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s Terminal 3 in Pasay City, the Bureau of Immigration intercepted two women who were posing as vacationing officemates. The women, aged 25 and 31, claimed to be call center agents from a business process outsourcing company in Quezon City, supposedly traveling to Bangkok, Thailand for tourism on February 13. However, discrepancies in their documentation led BI officers to question their story. The women eventually confessed that they were not colleagues but had been recruited for customer service roles in Laos, lured by a promised monthly salary of PHP50,000. They admitted to paying PHP3,000 to a social media contact to fabricate documents supporting their false narrative. BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado issued a warning about scam hubs in Asia that target Filipinos for such fraudulent job offers. He emphasized the need for caution with overseas job proposals that appear overly attractive, noting that many are covers for extensive scam operations that exploit and endanger Filipinos. The women were handed over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for further investigation.