Cops to public: Beware of text, call ‘tokhang’ scam

The Philippine National Police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) is warning the public against a circulating SMS scam which pretends to be a notification from authorities supposedly informing the recipient that he or she is included in the community drugs watchlist.

In an advisory released Tuesday, the PNP-ACG warned of the “Tokhang Telecom Fraud,” in which scammers would mimic phone numbers from local police or other law enforcement agencies to inform text recipients that: “You have been implicated in illegal drugs.”

The text racket would then ask the recipient to call a certain number, where targets would then be asked for their personal or financial information.

The PNP-ACG advised the public to avoid answering such texts or calls, and not give in to any request for information.

“Preserve text messages and the number used by the scammer … [and] report the same to the nearest PNP Anti-Cybercime Group office or police station in your location,” authorities said.

Reports can be lodged at PNP-ACG’s hotline: (02) 414-1560, or e-mailed to [email protected].   /kga