China arrests 44 in $140-M online scam

China’s police have arrested 44 people over a scam which saw many as 93,000 people contribute start-up capital to “unfreeze” assets smuggled overseas when the Nationalist government was overthrown in 1949, police authorities said late on Thursday.

The criminal network used Wechat and other communication tools to encourage people to pay 10 yuan ($1.46) for membership in a scheme which promised returns of as much as 50,000 yuan ($7,280) once the assets were unfrozen, the Ministry of Public Security said in a notice on its website.

The ministry said that it had busted a total of 15 criminal groups involved in the scam since investigations began in October 2016. The fraud involved more than 950 million yuan ($138.34 million).

The public security ministry said earlier this month that it had already set up 32 provincial and 206 city centers dedicated to cracking down on online and telecom fraud. It said it uncovered 83,000 cases last year, up 49.6 percent compared to 2016.

source: interaksyon.com

Palace leaving efforts for return of Amalilio to agencies

MANILA, Philippines -- Malacanang on Saturday said it would leave concerned agencies to work on the deportation from Malaysia of businessman Manuel Amalilio to face charges here of bilking thousands of people of billions of pesos in a pyramid scam.

Deputy Palace spokesperson Abigail Valte said there is as yet no need for President Benigno Aquino III to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to ask for the return of Amalilio.

Amalilio fled the country last year after the P12-billion scam pulled off by his firm, Aman Futures. He was arrested recently in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia and sentenced to two years in jail for possessing a fake Filipino passport.

Malaysia has said it is not inclined to deport Amalilio here before he completes his sentence.

Valte said Malacanang is leaving the effort to return Amalilio the Departments of Justice, Foreign Affairs, and Interior and Local Government.

“As we said earlier, we would like to give our officials the space to keep working at getting back Mr. Amalilio to the country,” she said in an interview over state-owned Radyo ng Bayan.

National Bureau of Investigation agents who had gone to Kota Kinabalu last month were about to board a plane to the Philippines with Amalilio when Malaysian authorities stopped the scam suspect from leaving.

Malaysian attorney general Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said in a statement that Amalilio is really Malaysian citizen Mohammad Kamal Sa’ad.

But Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has said he is a Filipino with a Philippine birth certificate, passport and NBI clearance.

Patail has also said the DOJ has asked Malaysia to freeze Amalilio’s assets.

The Malaysian newspaper The Star has also reported that the Philippines has formally sought Amalilio’s return, invoking the ASEAN Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Treaty.

source: interaksyon.com

Filipino nurses warned vs e-mail scam on non-existent Canada jobs

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Foreign Affairs is warning the public against a scam circulating by e-mail that offers Filipino nurses non-existent jobs in Toronto-based hospitals.

Citing a report from the Philippine consulate general in Canada, the DFA said the e-mail offers work with Shouldice and other hospitals in Toronto. It invites nurses to “coaching interviews” conducted by staff of these hospitals in Makati to prepare them for interviews by the Canadian embassy in Manila.

Participants are made to pay a fee of P3,888 for the “coaching interview,” which is a prelude to a two-day seminar at the completion of the initial consultation, the consulate said.

According to Shouldice Hospital, it has been represented illegitimately and falsely by an “unidentified” agency in the Philippines in conducting interviews of nurses, who have been sent e-mails supposedly from Shouldice Hospital.

In the past few days, Shouldice Hospital has been receiving at least 100 e-mails and telephone inquiries about these “coaching interviews” for potential employment in its hospital in Thornhill, Ontario.

These would-be participants are asked to send money via Western Union, specifically to somebody using Shouldice Hospital’s officers, including its chief executive officer.

The consulate general thus “advises recipients to be wary of such invitations, especially those that demand money from potential applicants.”

source: interaksyon.com