DICT urged to strengthen measures vs new text scams

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Senatorial aspirant and former Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos called on the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to intensify efforts against new text scams.

In a statement on Sunday, Abalos emphasized the need for the government to stay vigilant as scammers find innovative ways to execute online text scams.

‘’I call on the Department of Information and Technology to look into this,” he said.

“We have already started resolving cases of scams, but scammers continue to come up with new techniques to commit crimes,” he added in Filipino.

The DICT recently reported an increase in scam messages imitating legitimate advisories from popular e-wallet services.

According to the DICT, scammers use this tactic to deceive recipients and steal their personal and financial information.

The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) also issued a warning on Wednesday about phishing scams disguised as e-wallet providers.

CICC Executive Director Alexander Ramos urged the public to verify messages and avoid clicking on suspicious links to protect themselves from fraud.

“We are appealing to the public to be more vigilant and never click links sent through text messages. We should always be suspicious when we receive such links through text messages,” Ramos said.

READ: CICC warns vs text scam that sneaks into legit message threads

In light of recent incidents, Abalos advised the public to remain cautious and avoid interacting with unfamiliar text messages.

“Be vigilant and do not easily believe suspicious information you receive or read from text messages,” he said in Filipino.