WATCH: Smishing: ‘Personalized’ text scams in the Philippines

The Philippines is tagged as the text capital of the world. With more than 83 million mobile phone users, the Philippines has also become a haven for sham text messages.

Now, scammers have turned to various creative methods to dupe more, now addressing their victims by their first names instead of simply sending a templated message.

In this INQUIRER.net special report, Neil Mercado talks to victims of text scams and digs into the government and telecommunication companies’ plans to get to the bottom of the growing social menace.