MANILA, Philippines - Online scam has topped the list of complaints received by the Philippine National Police - Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG).
Based on its records, the PNP-ACG has received a total of 366 complaints regarding online scams from 2013 up to 2015.
Online scam cases are followed by online libel with 240 cases. The third top case is online threats with 129, fourth is identify theft with 127 and fifth is anti-photo and video voyeurism with 89, the PNP-ACG records showed.
The PNP-ACG said that the online scam complaints were reported by victims of online buying/selling, 'paluwagan,' investment, pyramid and other forms of online fraud.
To date, the PNP-ACG has recorded to date a total of 1,211 cybercrime complaints covering the period of 2013, 2014 and 2015.
According to Factbrowser, a digital discovery engine, as of 2014, there are 44 million Internet users in the Philippines and the average time spent on the Internet by users is 18.6 hours per week or 2.6 hours per day.
With the increasing number of Internet users there is also an increase in the opportunity for cyber criminals to do their illegal online activities, the PNP-ACG said.
The PNP-ACG has encouraged the public to report such suspicious Internet activities to address the increasing number of cybercrime, and targets of suspicious online messages its office for evaluation and investigation.