MANILA, Philippines — As spending is expected to increase during the Yuletide season, police have warned the public against another scheme of cyber criminals to steal money.
The Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) said text scams are now merging with legitimate message threads.
ACG officer-in-charge Col. Vina Guzman said there are short message service (SMS) text scams included in genuine message threads, which would pose challenges for account holders to distinguish the real from the fraudulent.
Guzman urged cell phone users to be wary of messages with links pretending to be from a bank or financial institution, a likely signal of a spoofing scam.
“Staying vigilant in all online transactions is essential,” Guzman said in a statement.
In the specific scam, Guzman explained that cyber criminals spoof an email address, phone number or even a website to make it appear it is from a trusted source and not from a scammer.
She said scammers use malicious software to make the message appear real.
The police official urged the public never to click on suspicious links they receive on their phones and to always verify transactions directly with their banks.
“Think before you click to avoid falling victim to text scams,” Guzman said.
The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) has also issued a warning on such text scams as the fraudulent activity is creeping into the message threads of e-wallet platforms GCash and Maya.
The spurious messages usually contain links to a fake site that capture the account holders’ details, including the one-time password or OTP and other personal details.
CICC executive director Alexander Ramos said his office has been receiving complaints related to this new text scam from GCash and Maya account holders.
“We are seeing more and more scam texts inserting themselves into legitimate GCash or Maya SMS,” Ramos said.
He reiterated the ACG’s call to the public that cell phone users should be more vigilant and never tap on links sent through SMS.
“We should always be suspicious when we receive such links through text messages,” Ramos said.
The CICC noted that both GCash and Maya are already aware of the scam. They are issuing their respective advisories to their account holders or customers.
“GCash will never send links via SMS, email and messaging apps,” the e-wallet platform said on its Facebook page. — Rainier Allan Ronda