Pasay City: Two individuals pretending to be officemates on vacation were recently stopped by Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay City. The BI reported that the women, aged 25 and 31, attempted to pass themselves off as call center agents for a business process outsourcing firm in Quezon City and were traveling for tourism to Bangkok, Thailand on February 13.

According to Philippines News Agency, upon presenting their documents, BI officers noted inconsistencies that contradicted their initial statements. The women later admitted that they were not truly officemates, but were recruited to work in Laos, where they were promised customer service representative (CSR) positions with a monthly salary of PHP50,000.

The women disclosed that they paid PHP3,000 to a fixer they met on social media to produce documents that would make it appear as though they were officemates. BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado issued a warning to the public about scam hubs in Asian countries that target Filipinos for CSR positions.

Commissioner Viado advised, 'We strongly advise Filipinos to be cautious when accepting job offers abroad, especially those that seem too good to be true.' He emphasized that many of these purported call center jobs are fronts for large-scale scam operations that exploit and endanger Filipino citizens.

The victims have been turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for further investigation.