Government, private sector urged to unite vs online scammers

MANILA, Philippines — A whole-of-society strategy is needed to effectively address the persistent scam attacks victimizing individuals and businesses, according to consumer advocacy group CitizenWatch Philippines.

In a statement, CitizenWatch Philippines lead convenor Orlando Oxales said that although there have been some gains in the government’s anti-cybercrime efforts, scammers continue to target millions of internet users with more cunning culturally customized tactics.

“We reiterate our call for all sectors to unite against online scammers. We must be informed, stay vigilant, and behave responsibly in the digital world as we are expected to be while offline in the real world,” Oxales said.

He said tech-powered fraudsters are now employing creative strategies to fool their targets to engage and eventually steal sensitive information that will lead to financial scams or fraudulent transactions.

“Scammers are employing devious tactics that will deceive their target to engage imposter accounts that will lead to malicious links with malware, clone branded advertisements to trick users to purchase the fake products, and offering job opportunities that are too good to be true,” Oxales said.

The Philippines was ranked with the highest scam rate for online shoppers in the 2023 Asia Scam Report, a survey commissioned by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) and Taiwan-based tech security company Gogolook.

The report surveyed the online shopping experience of 20,000 respondents from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

It measured the online shopping scam rate, which is the percentage of respondents who have been scammed or encountered scams in online platforms.

The results showed the Philippines with the highest scam rate at 35.9 percent, more than mainland China at 26.2 percent.

Philippine National Police data recorded 19,000 cybercrimes in 2023, which is an increase by 68.98 compared to 2022.

Majority of the cases were online scams with 14,030 cases, higher by 7,208 incidents or 94.64 percent from the previous year.

“Scam syndicates are getting more creative in carrying out phishing, smishing, and fraud attacks,” Oxales said. He further warned that “scammers will say anything to trick their targets that they are getting a great deal such as unbelievable cheap offers for expensive branded items and high job salaries among others.”