Taiwanese arrested for telephone fraud

A Taiwanese believed to have defrauded the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) company of P10 million in long-distance charges (and also the government of corresponding taxes), was arrested last Tuesday by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

David Wu, 32, was nabbed in his Binondo, Manila office by members of the NBI Criminal Intelligence Division (CID) after his company Hooya Technology Inc. was traced as the recipient of long-distance calls coming from Taiwan. He is said to have five Filipino and Taiwanese partners in the company.

Wu, said NBI-CID chief lawyer Rusty Vigilla, markets a phone card in Taiwan that gives callers access to a supposedly exclusive international telephone line provided by PLDT to the Taiwanese's local company. Hooya had 30 of these lines that have fixed rates.

The lines are provided to companies with a large volume of overseas telephone traffic on the condition that they be for the sole use of their company.

But instead, Wu is said to be selling access to the lines for long-distance calls between Taiwan and the Philippines.

Wu's company is said to have been offering its services for the last four months, raking in revenues of P2.5 million per month, said Vigilia.

Seized in the office of Wu, who was then alone, were electronic devices used for rerouting the calls.

"As a result, he (Wu) is able to earn money from these lines without having to pay additional fees to PLDT," said Vigilia.

NBI director Federico Opinion Jr. identified Wu's alleged accomplices as Hsiang Yung Yang; Alsin, Albert, Alfred, and Jesus, all surnamed Tanglao; and one Veronica Salalila.

This is the second time the NBI busted a company engaged in the same illegal activity. The first resulted in the arrest of two Japanese and two Filipinos who allegedly also defrauded PLDT of several millions of pesos.