Google rescinded the license of Philippines business Sykes as running a scam involving Bitcoin

By Selena On Aug 24, 2020

Google canceled the license of a Filipino business that committed Bitcoin scam and gift card fraud over the weekend. Specifically, a Cebu-based call center business, Sykes, was confirmed by Google to revoke its license to cooperate.

Google rescinded the license of Philippines business Sykes as running a scam involving Bitcoin

After a few employees were caught running a gift card scheme into Bitcoin, Google rescinded the license of Sykes.

A Google spokesperson stated:

“We are constantly assessing our business needs and have decided to shift this business to another vendor in the Philippines.”

Sykes employees were found to have illegally obtained more than 60 million PUD ($ 1.2 million at current exchange rates) using Google gift cards and converted them to Bitcoin to avoid being compromised detect. No timeframes are specified.

Sykes admitted the incident but claimed to have restrained as soon as they learned of the scam. The company said in a statement that it had taken prompt action against those employees following its policy.

Sykes did not mention filing or accusing employees. Google has not confirmed the same at press time.

Meanwhile, the company dismissed a viral post saying more than 300 Sykes employees in the Philippines were involved and lost their jobs due to the incident. Instead, it said all employees not “directly” involved in the failure were transferred to other company accounts immediately.

The company representative said:

“While there have been business changes that may have impacted some groups, we have ensured that all our hardworking employees are reassigned to other programs.”

The report marks one of the first cases of fraud involving Bitcoin and call centers. Last year, a similar incident was conducted in India, with police finally arresting more than 78 individuals involved in Bitcoin crimes.

According to reports at the time, Indian workers used an American accent to deceive American citizens, saying that their social security account was compromised with a small Bitcoin payment (from $ 50 – $ 5,000) is required to revert the account.

The scam took place on three call centers in India and was said to have drained millions of dollars by US officials. It seems that while Bitcoin is changing the world to some, it’s just that another tool for scammers.

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