Filipino Call Center Busted For Running Stock Market Scam

In a recent raid on a call center in the Pampanga's Clark Freeport Zone, the Philippine National Police arrested more than 482 people including 8 Israeli Nationals for running a stock market scam that had victims from all over the world. The authorities found that there was a concentration of victims in South Africa and Australia.

The call center that was raided was called ‘International Branding Development Marketing’ and was linked to iTrader, an Israel-based forex broker that was recently shut down.The police say that that the company was caught in the act of carrying out fraudulent transactions.

The operation sucked in investors on the pretext of buying shares in a UK company. Unfortunately, the promoted company was fake and this has led to millions of dollars being lost, with foreign clients being scammed through online trading. Philippine authorities are planning to reach out to Interpol so as to get in touch with the victims.

The raid was set off by complaints made by victims from Australia and South Africa. This led to a search warrant being issued and the raid was executed. The scam was not just about buying fake shares. Police said that the company also collected credit card info and then used this info to access bank account details.

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The operation has undergone several different name changes in recent times as the firm has been linked to several dubious operations. In late 2016, the company was linked to iTrader. This forex trader was based in Israel and was raided by the authorities. Both companies also had ties with a third party known as FM Trader.

Authorities Send Strong Message To Forex Fraudsters

The Philippine call center has been in operation for over 30 months now. A recent job posting in late 2017 suggested that the company was growing quickly and still had plans to expand. The job posting was looking for 50 call center agents and did not require any experience. After the raid, the Philippine National Police held a press conference that paraded the alleged Israeli masterminds behind the operation and also released the testimony of an Australian victim.

Dubious forex and binary options trading have become a large problem in Israel, with these companies targeting victims all over the world. The problem has gotten so bad that authorities have warned that these activities are causing anti-Semitic feelings because of the operators being mainly Jewish and being based out of Israel. This led to a major crackdown in Israel.

The Philippines has become a favorite fallback spot for scam companies that were hit by the crackdown. With this raid, Philippine authorities have vowed to deal more harshly with cybercriminals seeking shelter in their country.

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