Public warned vs fake email posing as DOJ chief’s

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Saturday warned the public not to respond to a fictitious email claiming to be from Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra’s office asking for financial assistance for terminally ill patients.

In an advisory, the DOJ’s Office of Cybercrime (OOC) said an online scammer was posing as the justice secretary using the email address [email protected].

Charito Zamora, head of the DOJ-OOC, said the fraudster sent messages to several individuals asking for money supposedly to buy “iTunes gift cards” for patients of hospice care centers.

Guevarra’s office, she added, only uses [email protected] and [email protected] as its official email addresses.

—MARLON RAMOS