THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) deported Monday evening 73 Chinese nationals who were operating a telecom fraud business in Metro Manila and Ilocos. In a statement, the BI said the deportees were Chinese fugitives arrested last Jan. 13 in raids conducted by joint forces of the BI and the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur and Las Piñas City following suspicious Internet traffic coming from the Philippines to China. They are wanted by the Chinese government for “economic crimes” committed in their country. “They are also undocumented aliens because the Chinese government already canceled their passports,” BI Commissioner Jaime H. Morente said in the statement. The group pretended to be police officers, prosecutors, and judges probing alleged cases involving the bank accounts of their targets, who were mostly rich Chinese businessmen. They would then demand money to be transferred to their accounts. — Dane Angelo M. Enerio

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