TEN Japanese nationals were deported by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Thursday to face trial for their alleged links to a syndicate behind a ¥2 billion telecommunications fraud in their country.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente identified the deportees as identified as Mishima Takumi, Tabata Ryota, Kawasaki Ryuto, Irabu Shioki, Onishi Shunsuke, Omata Kenta, Sato Takatoku, Hashizumi Ryushin, Mitani Ren and Oshita Nobuki.
Morente said they were expelled pursuant to a summary deportation order that the BI Board of Commissioners issued against them on December 5, 2019, after they were arrested by BI operatives in Makati City.
The said Japanese nationals, according to the BI, were among the 34 Japanese nationals arrested on November 13, 2019 by operatives from the BI fugitive search unit (FSU) inside a hotel in Makati City where they were caught in the act of engaging in voice phishing and telephone fraud activities.
The BI said Japanese authorities claimed that these individuals were part of an organized crime syndicate that duped unsuspecting Japanese citizens through their fraudulent scheme.
They allegedly defrauded their victims of roughly two billion yen, equivalent to about a billion pesos, causing significant damage to Japanese society.
Part of the modus of the syndicate was to randomly pick their victims through voice phishing, which is the use of fraudulent phone calls to trick people into giving money or revealing personal information.
The scam perpetrator is usually someone pretending to represent a trusted institution, company, or government agency.
The deportees, escorted by Japanese policemen, boarded a Japan Airlines flight to Narita, which left the Ninoy Aquino International Airport shortly after 10 a.m.
“All of them are now banned from reentering the Philippines as a result of their inclusion in our immigration blacklist of undesirable aliens,” Morente said.
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