Philippines – Eight Filipinos heading to Indonesia were pulled aside at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 on August 7 after immigration officers spotted signs they were being recruited through the “Catphishing” scheme. The group — five men and three women, aged 26 to 49 — was preparing to board a flight to Surabaya via Malaysia when officers flagged their story.
According to a statement from the Bureau of Immigration, the passengers first claimed they were headed for a five-day vacation with former call center co-workers from Makati City. But their accounts fell apart under closer questioning. Some could not even identify the people they were supposedly traveling with.
What Officers Uncovered
The real plan, authorities later found, was work — not leisure. The group had been offered customer service jobs in Indonesia with a promised monthly salary of US$1,000 to US$1,500.
Digging deeper, immigration officers discovered troubling details about the passengers’ backgrounds:
- Five had previously worked in Cambodia and Myanmar, countries linked to large-scale scam operations.
- Two reportedly left those countries through “backdoor” routes, bypassing official immigration.
- One had already been repatriated from Myanmar after falling victim to trafficking.
- Another had worked as a teacher in Thailand using only a tourist visa.
The ‘Catphishing’ Warning
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said the case proves the “catphishing” tactic is far from over. Recruiters use fake online profiles and friendly conversations to build trust before luring victims abroad with high-paying offers that turn out to be traps.
“This case is alarming because these are not isolated incidents, and the modus is clearly still happening,” Viado said. “What is even more disturbing is that some of these individuals had already experienced exploitation abroad, had been rescued or repatriated, and yet were once again being drawn into another potentially dangerous recruitment scheme.”
He added that traffickers keep changing their methods but stick to the same playbook: attractive job offers, big salary promises, and carefully built stories designed to win trust.
Advice for Aspiring OFWs
Viado urged every Filipino planning to work abroad to check the details first — the job, the recruiter, the employer, and the documents — through legitimate government channels before leaving the country. He stressed that online contacts and unverified recruiters should never be trusted on their word alone.
The eight passengers were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for assessment, assistance, and further intervention as possible victims of human trafficking and illegal recruitment.