Warning:  A new telephone scam targeting families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) has been tracked by the Philippine Embassy in London.

Based on the report of the Philippine Embassy to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), scammers target relatives of Filipino workers in London to obtain money.

Their modus: Scammers who claims to be an agent or officer of Philippine Embassy in UK will contact the family of an OFW in UK to inform them that their relative has been arrested or  has been involved in an accident. They will inform the family to send money immediately to release their relative from prison or hospital and to process his/her documents to send him/her back to the Philippines.

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In an advisory that appeared in the official website of POEA, the government agency announced the cancellation of licenses of two recruitment agencies, the Lucky International Placement Services Inc. and Tai-Fil Manpower Services Inc.

The reason for the cancellation of license is excessive collection of placement fees in violation of the POEA rules and regulations.

According to Viveca Catalig, Officer-in-Charge of the POEA, the license of Lucky International was canceled because of a complain from an applicant that was charged PhP101,000.00 for a caretaker job in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the license of Tai-Fil Manpower Services Inc. was canceled after a complainant said that he was asked to pay a placement fee amounting to PhP100,000 for a job as a food processor in Taiwan.

Recruitment agencies with cancelled licenses are prohibited from conducting or participating in any recruitment activity.

“The public should be extra cautious when applying for work overseas and report to POEA any observed irregularity. Always check the status of your
recruitment agencies for your own protection by visiting our website, www.poea.gov.ph or by calling POEA hotlines 722-1144 / 722-1155, and report those that are still recruiting despite the suspension or cancellation of their licenses,” Catalig concluded

The DFA raised the crisis alert level in Iraq to 3 and this means the Philippine government will facilitate the voluntary repatriation of all Filipinos in the country,

The alert level covers all regions of Iraq except the northern autonomous region of Kurdistan, near the country’s border with Turkey.

The news that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) partially lifted the deployment ban in Iraq and Afghanistan is being used by unscrupulous individuals to tricked unsuspecting applicants by promising jobs to the said countries.   For this reason, the POEA issued an advisory to remind jobseekers that for the moment any job offers to Iraq and Afghanistan is illegal or nonexistent because the deployment ban is still in place.

According to Carlos Cao Jr., POEA administrator, “Illegal recruiters saying otherwise must not be believed and must be reported to POEA and other law enforcement authorities for legal action.”

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All Filipinos going to Bangkok, Thailand as tourists can expect a more rigorous screening process as the Philippine government recently ordered the Bureau of Immigration to conduct a thorough screening of all Bangkok-bound Filipino tourists. This move is in response to the report that the said city is being used as a transit point for “tourist workers.”

The term “tourist workers” refer to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) without proper working documents. These OFWs usually go out of the country as tourists but with the real intention of finding employment abroad.

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