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On Wednesday, June 15, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation Cebu Division Office (NBI CEBDO) in the Philippines arrested four Nigerian citizens for allegedly fabricating government IDs and other documents to be used in internet frauds, police said.
On Monday, June 13, 2022, at around 3 p.m., NBI agents swooped down on a house in a subdivision in Barangay Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City, and detained the four suspects.
Augustine Onyekachi Nkowachi, Tosen Samuel Oguntoye, Chubuike Joseph Nwokoro, and Christopher Okeke were identified.
The four will be charged with various counts of document fabrication.
The operation was carried out after one of the suspects' girlfriend requested help from the office after she was allegedly convinced by the suspects to help them produce phony identity in her name.
The suspects forced her to register many bank accounts after she obtained phony IDs, which will be used to facilitate transactions related to an online scam.
The suspects began their operation in April 2022, according to the NBI-CEBDO, however they have yet to be issued ATM cards by the banks, according to Agent Atty. Nio Rodriguez.
Rodriguez Said;
"If naa silay ma scam adto nila ma deposit considering nga naay ATM so they will just pull the proceeds. Based sa amoang complainant, there was a time nga gisugo siya to call someone and to tell that someone nga naay nasulod nga money sa iyang (back account) but she has to pay before she could withdraw that money."
According to the investigation, the girlfriend's forged IDs were printed in Colon, Cebu City.
Rodriguez stated that this was not the first time in Colon that an issue of ID forgery had arisen. He claimed that police had previously carried out operations in the area.
BIR, Philhealth, NBI clearances, LTO driver's licenses, Philpost IDs, PRC IDs, and corporate IDs were among the bogus official IDs confiscated by the agents.
Several images real Filipinos were utilized in the recovered false IDs, but the names and data were made up.
"Seguro they met in dating sites and once they get the trust of Filipina, they would ask them to open bank accounts using their photos but not their names,” said Rodriguez
Agent-in-charge According to Arnel Pura, they would work with the Nigerian embassy in Manila to learn more about the suspects' backgrounds.
Pura Said; "Our presumption is they are all undocumented aliens, wala man silay passport, that is one of the factors atoang i-establish, nature sa ila’ng stay diri, wanted ba sa ila’ng country."
