3 Taiwanese nabbed for 'call bypass' scheme

MANILA, Philippines - Three Taiwanese were arrested during simultaneous raids on condominiums in Makati City Friday for allegedly engaging in a “call bypass” operation, in which international calls are made to appear as local calls, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) reported yesterday.

In a report to NBI officer-in-charge Nonnatus Caesar Rojas, the agency’s Computer Crimes Unit (CCU) said its agents arrested Wen Shang Yang and Jang Yuan-JR at two units of the Makati Cinema Square Tower and Huang Jian Wei and Ruben Vallespin at the Palm Towers.

The four suspects were charged with theft as well as violating the Access Devices Act (Republic Act 8484) and E-Commerce Act (RA 8792) before Prosecutor Analie Brual last April 1.

NBI-CCU agents confiscated global system for mobile communication (GSM) equipment such as SIM boxes, routers, cables and thousands of SIM cards – all of them either Smart, Talk n Text or Sun.

The raids stemmed from a complaint filed by Smart Telecommunications Inc. after the firm was surprised over the large volume of international calls it has been monitoring in these condominiums.

The NBI said under the “call” or “toll bypass process,” calls are diverted before reaching an international gateway facility like Smart. The suspects were able to make it appear that international calls were just local calls, depriving telecommunications firms of income.

The NBI said this kind of operation is easy to conceal, adding that in Manila alone, there are about 100 groups doing call bypass operations.

Filipinos who rented the raided condominium units insisted their names were merely used by the suspects and they were not aware of the scheme.

The Filipino occupants renting the raided condominium units insisted their names were merely used by the suspects and they were not aware of the operations.