MANILA: The Philippines’ top investigative agency is preparing to deploy personnel to the country’s diplomatic posts, starting from the Middle East, to help overseas Filipino workers who are increasingly falling prey to cyberfraud. National Bureau of Investigation director Melvin Matibag told a Senate hearing last week that the agency is working with the Department of Foreign Affairs on a framework to introduce its attaches to Philippine diplomatic missions. The measures initially planned for countries with the biggest Filipino communities, where the NBI “noticed that (cybercrime) cases are increasing, with our OFWs becoming victims,” he said. “We are initially targeting areas like the Middle East … where there is a large presence of OFWs.” More than 2 million Filipinos live and work in Gulf Cooperation Council countries alone, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait. Another large concentration of OFWs is in the US and Canada, as well as Hong Kong. In all these destinations, Filipinos have been increasingly seeking help after falling victim to online fraud, according to the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Council, the Philippine government’s inter-agency body responsible for cybersecurity policies. “Between January and Sept. 28, 2026, we have already received 596 complaints of various cybercrimes targeting OFWs,” the CICC’s Public Information Office told Arab News on Monday. Filipinos in the UAE filed the highest number of such complaints, according to CICC data. Women constituted 64 percent of the victims, and the most targeted age group was 30–49, accounting for 74 percent of the complaints filed. Online lending fraud and consumer products and services fraud have been the most common modus operandi, but there are also different cases involving real estate. Among the latest examples was a Dubai-based OFW who paid online for a property in Caloocan City in the Philippine capital region. “According to the report, the victim allegedly lost a total of 2.35 million pesos ($38,000),” the CICC said. “While waiting to receive the documents and title transfer, the complainant discovered that the same property they had just purchased was allegedly being offered for sale again.” The NBI, which has primary investigative jurisdiction over cyber and transnational crimes, is preparing to start deploying its attaches next year, the agency’s director told the Senate. The plan is already authorized under the National Bureau of Investigation Reorganization and Modernization Act, which empowers the NBI director to deploy personnel to Philippine embassies, consulates, and other diplomatic offices in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs.