NBI arrests 11 Filipinos and Malaysian for ‘renting out’ 50,000 SIM cards

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) have recently arrested one Malaysian and eleven Filipinos under the allegation of ‘renting out’ SIM cards that have verified GCash accounts.

The Anti-Organized and Transnational Crime Division of the NBI have arrested Lau Wen, a Malaysian, and eleven Filipinos. They have also confiscated 50,000 SIM cards, 13 desktop computers, 57 cellphones, 40 GSM text blasters, and a laptop.

The twelve individuals were charged for violating Republic Act 8494 or the Access Devices Act of 1998, RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 for forgery and RA 11934 or the SIM Card Registration Act of 2020.

Their operations start with gathering users in FaceBook who have GCash accounts with a PHP 500,000 limit who are willing to have their accounts rented.

These users were offered PHP 2,000 per month as a rental fee as their accounts are used to load in casinos.