Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Bewarned Intertech8888 Recruitment is a SCAM!



Modus Operandi: First is the sweet talk, Second is the promise of direct hiring to Australia or elsewhere and Third is to get your money and... poof! 

If you get into situations like the ones mentioned above, chances are you're in line to fill up the pockets of unscrupulous individuals at Intertech8888. Read on to find out more about the workings behind one of Cebu's bogus recruitment scams. 

The high hopes of having the chance to work abroad for a small fee (15,000 Php to be exact) minus all the recruitment hassles and security measures set by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) landed my wife and some friends in jeopardy as they fell victim to the sweet tongue of Kirby Silva, owner and CEO of the controversial BPO firm- Intertech8888 that is based in Minglanilla, Cebu who promised them quick employment as "factory workers" for various businesses in Australia.

Just to appease my curiosity and witness the intriguing process, I tagged along during their orientation seminar which was surprisingly set at a residential address and not in the usual corporate conference room. 

If I remembered things correctly, it was a certain Evan Ortega who ushered us in on the sweet spots with props ranging from photos of applicants they've managed to send abroad and of course, also their supposed "goody-goody" testimonials too to entice everyone who were present there to set their horses rolling and squeeze the juice of 15, 000 Php out of us- which he said was set at 10,000 Php to cover the placement fee and 5,000 Php for the assessment fee with which we were instructed to anytime when we're "ready" to pay to our coordinators or at the supposed office of Intertech at Springwood, Upper Tulay, Minglanilla, Cebu.

After hearing everything and after doing some background check about the company and certain key personas  online (which to my surprise and suspicion is there isn't a single impression about them in sites, blogs and forums online- and could only mean one thing. It's all a SCAM.) I pointed out what i found out to my wife and advised her not to go ahead but my pleas only fell on deaf ears as she only replied that she and the rest of our friends are all determined to take the risk and is pushing through with the deal...


Making the payment and closing the deal 

Much like signing a contract with the devil, they received a call from a certain coordinator with the name of Thelma Beniga who then scheduled a meetup with them at Mc Donald's Jones Branch to get their payments, which they abruptly complied and were given in turn with Official Receipts (confirming my worries) that do not bear a Tax Identification Number (TIN.)

They were then instructed to wait for a few weeks or months for the email which will guide them to their batch and company of assignment, which i later learned that my wife received in just a couple of days and my how fast! and that they will all go on the same batch for a chocolate confectionery known as SCALZO Foods based in Perth, Australia.   

After a few months of waiting... The dreaded news broke out that Kirby Silva and some of her cohorts were arrested by the NBI after the agency received several complaints about Intertech's illegal activities which are in violation of Section 6 or R.A. 8402 otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Filipinos Acts of 1995. 

***Read the news reports about their capture: 

http://www.philstar.com/cebu-news/2013/10/11/1243968/recruiter-faces-more-complaints  

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2013/09/25/illegal-recruiter-staff-arrested-305301

http://cebudailynews.ph/news/story/20223

Duped to sign a waiver that obviously screams Intertech8888 is only guiding them and is "hand washing" from all its responsibilities

Last weekend, my wife got a call that Kirby is asking them to go to her house at a remote part of Minglanilla to settle everything and after seeing through her ordeal, I decided that i should butt in and that we go there to get a refund for all that she paid for. We met up with a friend who's also facing the same dilemma and like us, wants to get a refund so we proceeded right away to find Kirby's place.

What greeted us in the venue were hundreds of people who were also lining up to meet up with Kirby but were only told that they can only get in if they'd sign the waiver form of which after reading, I can clearly define that the company is now changing its terms and that now it is saying that it is merely guiding its recruits (a typical tactic used by scammers to get themselves out of trouble.)

Smelling the fish in the form, i told my wife and some friends who were there at the venue to not sign the waiver and since it was already late we opted to just go home and wait for updates from the others just in case everyone agrees to file a formal complaint or simply just settle in on the refund and forget the whole deal.

I on the other hand, opted to write about our experience with this company and disseminate it online to warn others who, like my wife and friends may fall for their traps and tactics in the future and for various government agencies looking into this kind of employment strategies to be aware of.

As of this writing, we still haven't received any updates from Intertech8888 and lesson learned, everything is going down the drain....




18 comments:

cebuimage said...

Jam, springwoods man among balay. Asa dapit ni?

Message in a Bottle said...

jobs, naa sa pinaka tumoy katong dako nga balay with swimming pool on top of the hill. mao ba, maypag nikontak ko nimo ani ahead da. is this business familiar in your place jobs? whats the news?... help spread the word out jobs to avoid further victims. thanks much

Ramil said...


Thanks for this useful tip bro, tsk tsk u just can't trust people nowadays eh.

Jade said...

Glad to be informed of this as me and my friends can come across employment schemes such as what happened to you. Hope the NBI will teach the guys at Intertech8888 a lesson they will never forget.

Elsa said...


Was supposed to join Intertech8888 until the news broke out that the NBI raided them a few months ago. Thanks much for this helpful info and more power!

Message in a Bottle said...


Thanks much for your comments and support guys. Just to be sure though and lesson learned here is that if your recruiter is not licensed by the POEA and if transactions are done somewhere else outside the office, I think its best to simply just stay away and look for the better alternative. We've learned our lesson with Intertech8888 and will surely never do it again. Cheers ;-)

Anonymous said...


Thanks for this helpful tip. Will take note of the schemes they're using so me and my friends will never fall for intertech8888's tricks ever again!

Message in a Bottle said...


I'm pretty sure Intertech8888 will change their name soon and engage in this kind of fooling helpless recruits but nonetheless we've exposed their style. always welcome anonymous, glad to help you out.

Reggie said...


Thanks for this helpful post. Will keep watch of this group and their tactics from now on.

Message in a Bottle said...


Thanks for dropping by Regg. Glad to help out ;-)

bangs said...


Thanks for this post. Will be on the lookout for companies like this one from now on. Thanks much for sharing your experience.

Message in a Bottle said...


Welcome Bangs and thanks for dropping by. Always glad to help, a tip though is that you should make a search online to be updated with backgrounds etc. should you be tempted with companies such as intertech8888 ever again. ;-)

Message in a Bottle said...


FYI, if you happened to be a victim of Kirby Silva and Intertech8888 or if you happened to know of relatives or friends who got into this scam:

Complaints are now accepted at the NBI Office in the Visayas. You can reach them thru their hotline numbers at:(032) 256-336 /253-5631 / 254-6444

Anonymous said...

Hi MIB, thanks much for this helpful post. I've been a victim too along with some friends of mine as well. More power to you and i'll keep in touch as soon as we've grouped together to file our complaint. Reynan of Lapu-Lapu here

Message in a Bottle said...

No probs Reynan, glad to help out. do keep in touch bro ;-)

Evan Millan said...

Hi MIB, i happened upon the twitter account of Kirby Silva check this out at https://twitter.com/intertech8888 my god they're all over the place!

Message in a Bottle said...

Noted Evan and thanks much for the visit. so far it's all silent here with no updates yet. let's just hope everything will be cleared up by the NBI soon. File your complaint with them today too dude.

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