People always tell me
“How can I trust this person?”
Their minds immediately go to
“What if my OFS steals from me?”
With a local hire, you know you can go to the police.
But what if your OFS steals your financial information or client list or destroys your website, database, or cloud? What can you do?
The good thing about hiring an OFS is that this rarely happens.
Digital theft is rare in the Philippines!
Three reasons:
1. because your OFS doesn’t want to steal from you.
2. there’s no incentive to steal.
3. if and when they’re caught, the punishment is really steep.
Even though it’s really rare, I understand wanting to know what you can do if this unlikely event happens to you. We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people get hired through OnlineJobs.ph. We’ve seen theft happen…but it’s so unbelievably rare I only talk about it because you want to hear about it.
So my team took it upon themselves to research.
They emailed the Philippine Department of Justice – Office of the Cybercrime to ask what’s the protocol regarding reporting cybercrime committed by Philippine citizens against someone who is not in the Philippines.
This is the email my OFS sent.
Because many employers are concerned about the safety of their data, they are concerned that some Filipinos they hire as off-shore contractors may breach their trust, data, and information security, we’d like to know:
Since the employers do not have any entity in the Philippines, can they report Philippine based Filipino workers to the Philippines’ DOJ for cybercrime if they steal, sell, or destroy data?
The DOJ responded with:
The normal course of action, therefore, is for them to file a report to their local law enforcement so that they can coordinate with their Philippine counterparts. They may also file a complaint to the nearest Philippine Consular Office by executing a consularized affidavit and sending it to the Chief of National Bureau of Investigation – Cybercrime Division, 5th Floor, VTEC Tower, 1257 Gregorio Araneta Avenue cor. Maria Clara St., Quezon City, Philippines or to the Director of the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group, Camp Crame, Quezon City.
For their contact details, they may visit the following links: http://nbi.gov.ph/transparency-seal/nbi-divisions and https://acg.pnp.gov.ph/main/contacts.
That’s pretty straightforward. If ever a Filipino worker commits a cybercrime against you, you can first contact your local law enforcement to file a formal complaint. Your local law enforcement will coordinate with their Philippine counterparts, and the ball will start rolling.
You can also file a complaint with the Philippine consulate if you live close to one.
The Philippines government takes theft seriously. They don’t tolerate it. There is no “$950 California theft law” in the Philippines. If you steal and are caught, you’re going to jail. Everyone in the Philippines knows this and it’s almost always enough to deter people. It’s not worth losing your reputation and future opportunities just for a bit of extra money.
I want to remind you that I am not a lawyer. Nobody on my team is a lawyer. Listen to your lawyer. Consult your lawyer.
But you won’t be needing this information if you have a solid hiring process that consistently gets you good, trustworthy, reliable Filipino workers. That’s what I teach at OneVAAway.com.
John