‘Beware of text, online scams, report them to authorities’

Iloilo City Councilor Candice Tupas urged Ilonggos to be vigilant and report incidents of text and online scams to authorities amid the rampant incidents of scams and cyber-attacks in the metro.

The lady councilor who chairs the Committee on Communication and Public Information of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) warned the public on Tuesday to beware of phishing and smishing.

Phishing is a form of cyberattack where victims are tricked through fraudulent links through emails to obtain their personal information and bank accounts.

Smishing on the other uses text messages to defraud victims to obtain their personal information.

“I am bothered because this means that we are no longer safe as we are vulnerable to personal data leakages. A lot of us received these messages containing either job offers, winners of raffles and other forms of unsolicited text and money scams and they continue to entice the public,” Tupas said in her privilege speech during the regular session of the SP on Wednesday as she expressed worry over incidents of online and text scams.

Tupas urged Ilonggos to be proactive by reporting the direct link of the fraudulent emails and text messages to the authorities particularly the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

“We must do our part in information dissemination. We have to be proactive. There are several ways of reporting. We can go to the website of NTC and report the links and numbers of the scammers. It is incumbent upon us to take measures to ensure that our constituents especially the most vulnerable sector which is the youth will not be compromised,” she said.

Recently, Tupas through her committee initiated a consultative meeting with the NTC, Philippine National Police (PNP), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Public Information Office, NTC, and telcos to discuss the proliferation of text and online scams.

Tupas said that the concerned government organizations are currently investigating the incidents.

The telcos also assured the public that they are strictly implementing countermeasures to prevent such incidents and to block the perpetrators.

“We had a meeting with telcos and concerned government agencies and they are still investigating the text and web scams. They are looking into the possibility that it is internationally manipulated and almost all victims have undisclosed downloadable chat apps,” Tupas added.

Meanwhile, NTC Region 6 on its Facebook page warned the public to immediately report the scammers through their website, https://ntc.gov.ph/kontratextscam/.

“Indi magdali-dali pati sa mga text messages nga may unod nga Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) halin sa mga suspetsoso ukon delikado nga mga sites kag sa mga nabaton nga mga personalized text messages natuhoy sa mga peke nga oportunidad sa obra ukon ang mga nagatanyag sang kwarta kag nagdaog sa raffle halin sa mga kilala nga personalidad.”

The agency also advised to public to be more discerning when receiving suspicious text messages and emails.

“Indi gid magpa-into sa mga scammers, magbantay, maghalong kag usisaon gid sang tul-id ang mga nabaton nga mga impormasyon o mensahe halin sa mga indi ninyo kilala nga mga mobile phone numbers,” the agency warned. (DG)