MANILA -- Philippine police have arrested six Taiwanese men allegedly involved in credit card fraud during an operation in a rented townhouse in the northern province of Pampanga, according to police report released here Thursday.

One of the foreigners arrested even tried to bribe the operatives with 500,000 pesos (11,933 U.S. dollars) in cash, a report submitted to National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Nonnatus Rojas stated.

The arrest of the Taiwanese prompted the NBI to conduct a wider probe into the possibility of a bigger syndicate operating in Central Luzon as the suspects apparently are connected with the group of 16 Taiwanese earlier arrested by the bureau for online fraud in Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Zambales province, in April.

Seized from the suspects were the bribe money, counterfeit automated teller machine (ATM) cards and counterfeit credit cards, electronic gadgets used in illegal duplication of credit cards and ATM cards.

NBI Cybercrime division chief Ronald Aguto said the six are now detained at the NBI detention in Manila.