Manila — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) deported 115 Chinese nationals today after their arrest in two separate raids on illegal offshore gaming and cyber scam facilities. The group was flown to China from Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3.
What happened
The BI carried out the deportation with the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Chinese consular authorities. The 115 were arrested in two operations:
- 62 people in Zamboanga Sibugay on October 2
- 53 people in a raid in Cubao, Quezon City on October 12
Authorities cited immigration violations and unauthorized commercial cyber activities as the grounds for deportation. All 115 have been permanently blacklisted from re-entering the Philippines.
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said the deportations reflect the agency's firm stance on foreigners who engage in unauthorized commercial activity and illegal cyber-gambling operations. He said the bureau will intensify field operations and work with local law enforcement and international intelligence partners against illegal POGO hubs and online scam syndicates.
What the facilities were doing
The raided facilities were linked to three kinds of fraud:
- Romance scams
- Identity theft
- Cryptocurrency investment fraud
These schemes usually run from call-center-style sites where workers follow scripts to build trust with victims, often in other countries, before pushing them to send money or invest on fake platforms.
Who was deported, and who wasn't
The fact sheet notes that the deportees were mostly low-level operators. They were not the financiers or leaders of the syndicates.
That gap matters. Deporting workers removes people from the Philippines, but the networks that recruit, fund and run these hubs can set up elsewhere. Past crackdowns have followed the same pattern: large batches of workers sent home, while the people behind the operations are harder to reach.
Part of a longer crackdown
The Philippines has been steadily deporting foreign workers tied to illegal POGO and scam hubs. In February 2025, the BI deported 98 Chinese nationals caught working for an illegal POGO company, on a flight arranged by the Chinese Embassy. In October 2025, President Marcos signed the Anti-POGO Law, which imposes stricter penalties and gives the government stronger authority to shut down illegal gaming hubs and related scam operations. Today's batch is one of the larger ones to follow it.
Why it matters for the startup ecosystem
Scam hubs hurt the same digital economy that local startups are trying to build. Fintech, e-wallet and online-investment companies depend on public trust, and fraud tied to cryptocurrency and fake identities erodes it.
For founders, three takeaways stand out:
- Identity verification and fraud detection remain a growing need as scammers use stolen identities and fake investment platforms.
- Platforms that handle payments or crypto face rising scrutiny, so strong know-your-customer (KYC) and monitoring practices are a business requirement, not an extra.
- Public education is still lacking. Romance and investment scams work because victims trust the person on the other end.
For the public, the usual advice applies: be cautious of online contacts who move quickly to money, verify any investment platform before sending funds, and report suspected scams to the authorities.