A MALAYSIAN and 11 Filipinos have been arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for unlawful procurement of SIM cards with verified GCash mobile wallet accounts.
The suspects were apprehended in a series of operations conducted on November 9 and 10 by agents of the NBI Anti-Organized and Transnational Crime Division.
The arrested suspects were identified as Malaysian national Lau Wen Xiang and his Filipino cohorts Aldwin Villena, RJ Vincent Abdulhamid, Alkhaizar Sahali Jambiran, Rayan Panayam Apostol, Aira May Sahali Jambiran, Sherwin Dave Cahanap Kier John Salazar, Jasper Philander Viscayno, Datu Jonathan Tasil Mama, Jonalou Tayomora, and Almoner Ladjahali Ladja.
They were arrested for violation of Section 9 (c), (d), and (e) of RA 8484 (Access Devices Act of 1998), violation of Section 4 (a) (1) (Illegal Access) and 4 (b) (1) (i) (computer-related Forgery) of RA 10175 or the Prevention Act of 2012, and violation of Section 11 (e) of RA 11934 or the SIM Card Registration Act of 2020.
The NBI has filed charges against the suspects before the City Prosecutor’s Office of Manila, which has ordered their detention at the bureau’s detention cell.
The NBI conducted the operations after getting information that a Facebook group, supposedly run by casino loaders, was looking for GCash account holders who have verified account status and with a P500,000 limit who are willing to have their accounts “rented.”
The SIM card owners were supposedly offered P2,000 as upfront payment and P2,000 as monthly rental fee for succeeding months.
After verifying the tip, the NBI hatched an entrapment operation against the said individuals.
It used a poseur buyer who acted as a SIM card owner willing to let her GCash account to be rented by the syndicate. The poseur buyer, according to the NBI, was allegedly advised that a delivery rider would pick up the SIM card at a certain establishment in Quezon City.
“NBI-AOTCD operatives accompanied the poseur buyer to the said establishment and upon handing over of the SIM, NBI-ATOCD operatives approached the rider and he voluntarily cooperated with the operatives,” the bureau division said in a report submitted to the office of Director Medardo de Lemos.
They then supposedly proceeded to the recipient of the SIM card in Parañaque City, who told the NBI operatives that she was only instructed to receive the SIM cards and send it to their boss in the city of Manila.
Another undercover agent then posed as a delivery rider and proceeded to the Manila address to deliver the SIM cards.
“Upon handing over of the package to a certain ‘Mae,’ she was approached by the operatives, (who then) informed them that she was only instructed to receive the package and hand it over to the occupants of a certain unit in (the) building,” the NBI report said, adding that she and the operatives proceeded to the target unit and handed over the package.
In the said unit, the NBI said its operatives saw several monitors, Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) modems commonly knowns as “text-blast machines,” and various SIM cards, leading to the arrest of the suspects.
