There has been a proliferation of text scams that tend to succeed in extorting money from people or from their bank accounts.
This is why the Central Bank of the Philippines has called on the public to protect themselves from these scammers.
There is a significant drop in this crime received by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) at 93.3 percent with the implementation of the SIM card registration under Republic Act 11934.
However, Filipinos should remain vigilant and report any kind of spurious call or suspicious text messages from numbers unknown to them. Others come in the guise of promoting online games with a significantly high cashback.
The BSP said of the possible Phishing or SMiShing, "Mag- ingat sa text messages na may link galing sa hingi rehistrading numero. Ito ay isang anyo ng SMS Phishing or SMiShing kung saan nanlilinlang ang scammers para kunin ang iyong pribadong impormasyon gaya ng username, password, cellphone number, at one-time password o OTP.
"Ang mga mensaheng ito ay maaaring may instruction na i-click o i-copy-paste ang mga kahina-hinalang link sa iyong browser."
What to do
According to BSP, when someone receives a suspicious message from a bank of any financial institution, do not click on the link. Legitimate BSP-supervised financial institutions do not send messages with a link to clients. This is reflected on BSP Memorandum No. M-2022-015.
It is also important that users are well aware of their online transactions, thus, monitoring of these takes place on the legitimate and official website and/ or mobile applications of the financial institutions.
When any such happens, better contact the bank or e-money provider directly. It is also important to verify to the authorized representative/ channel any request of your personal data.
A one-time password (OTP) given to an account holder should not be shared with anyone.
Any individual experiencing scams shall make coordinate to Cybercrime and Coordinating Center of Department of Information and Communications Technology: https://cicc.gov.ph/report/ ; Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Complaint Action Center: Landline +637230401 local 7491 o Cellphone: 09618298083 and 09155898506; BSP Online Buddy through website: www.bsp.gov.ph , messenger: https://www.m.me/BangkoSentralngPilipinas/ and Globe Users: 21582277.
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