< December 29 from Taipei >
The National Bureau of Investigation, Philippines has arrested 24 members of a well-entrenched Chinese telecommunications, Internet and credit card fraud syndicate which had raked in P6 billion in six months time of illegal operations in the Philippines, during simultaneous raids on eight suspected safe houses in Metro Manila.

NBI Anti Fraud and Action Division said that in carrying out their illegal operations, members of the Lo-led syndicate introduced themselves as judge, prosecutor or a police officer to their prospective victims in mainland China and Taiwan. They will call the would-be victims that the latter has committed a crime, or has a pending charge and needs to settle the case with the Chinese government by paying a particular amount. Some of their victims turned out to be relatives of the Chinese government officials. Most of their victims are also Chinese retirees who have received huge amount of money.

Based on the information provided to them by police of the People’s Republic of China (PROC), the raids in the Philippines was done simultaneously with raids in China in the syndicate leader Lo's suspected safe houses. Around 100 cohorts of Lo were also nabbed by Chinese police in China.

NBI Anti Fraud and Action Division said the operation of the group has a strong relation to a call center where there are several call center agents who call targets and do the follow-up calls. The syndicate member will ask a target from China or Taiwan to open a new account, and transfer their money to settle cases from the old account to the new account.

In some cases, the account holder will be asked to secure an ATM card in Macau and mail it to the address given by the syndicate, or to open a new account through online banking. If a victim agrees to online banking, the syndicate member will then ask for the account number, which will be copied by group which is also engaged in the manufacture fake ATM card where the money is withdrawn.

IThe operation involves NBI, Taiwan Police and China Police using the Advanced Network Interception and Forensics Investigation Tool, E-Detective from Decision Group. The high tech Internet interception and investigation tool has been deployed at multiple ISP to intercept the Internet communication - voice over IP calls between the suspects and the victims. The location (safe houses) of the suspects and their related accounts information can also be traced and then revealed by the high tech cyber crime investigation tool.

About Decision Group
Decision Group, established since 1986, is one of the leaders in manufacturing of PC-Based Multi-Port RS232/422/425 Serial Cards, and Industrial Automation and Control Systems. Decision Group, since the year 2000, started new line of industry involved in designing and development of equipment and software for Internet Content Monitoring and Forensics Analysis Solutions.

Decision Group also provides OEM/ODM of its current technology and solution to other partners worldwide. Decision Group has also developed a comprehensive training course, known as Network Packet Forensics Analysis Training (NPFAT), and has established training centers worldwide for hands-on real scenario training, with certification option as well.