DFA, NBI probe e-mail-order bride services

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) vowed yesterday to probe online mail-order bride services which prey on Filipino women.

Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda-Leviste, reacting to a STAR exposé on so-called "e-mail-order bride" websites, called on the two government agencies to initiate an investigation.

Victoriano Lecaros, DFA spokesman, said the department will look into the electronic commerce law to determine what course of action the Philippine government may take on these e-mail-order bride websites.

"We intend not just to protect the integrity of Filipinas but also our country," he added.

Elfren Meneses, head of the NBI’s Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division, himself admitted that they need to check whether the websites violate the e-commerce law or Republic Act 6955, which declares mail-order bride services as illicit activities.

"We still have to check. If that is just courtship, there is no problem. If there is money involved, it could mean that there is something illegal involved," he said.

Meneses said that unlike mail-order bride services which the NBI had investigated, such schemes on the Internet are tougher to crack.

Two US online firms are behind such websites as filipina.com, filipinawife.com and filipinalady.com which have catalogs of Filipino women looking for foreign husbands. Surfers have to pay fees via online credit card payment, postal mail, check or bank-to-bank money transfer to get complete information about women who catch their fancy.

Legarda said while the government cannot run after these US firms, authorities can track down their contacts in the country. — Pia Lee-Brago and Mike Frialde