MANILA, Philippines – A cybersecurity advocacy group has advised Filipinos to be wary of greeting notifications, and gifts, and discount coupons being offered online this holiday season, as it may be meant for phishing to obtain confidential information.
Phishing is defined as a method where a malicious website tries to get sensitive information from a user, by posing as a credible and legitimate organization.
According to Cyber Security Philippines CERT, there are several fraudulent greeting notifications on social media that when clicked, would redirect a user to another window where vital information will be required.
“Careful with opening greeting notification via messenger this New Year. Better yet — before opening one confirm first with your friend, family, and relatives if they indeed sent one,” Cyber Security Philippines CERT said in a Facebook post.
The group said that once a victim inputs his or her details on the phishing site or page, it would store the information and send other similar invites to the victims’ contacts.
Among the websites identified by Cyber Security Philippines CERT as examples of phishing sites are the following:
They advise people who may have had left their information on the page to immediately change their passwords — on social media accounts, gadgets, and even on banking accounts. They also urge a reset of the browsers and a routine update of their anti-virus or anti-malware scanners.
But aside from that, there are also websites mimicking customers of a line of grocery stores, where there are made to believe that they have won discount coupons, with the only requirement to redeem the discount coupons is for them to input their names, address, and contact numbers.
“Are you, your friends, family members, and relatives fond of discounts? Watch out. This campaign is targeting Filipino shoppers this holiday,” Cyber Security Philippines CERT said
Edited by MUF