The Social Security System (SSS) on Thursday warned members and the public against fake text alerts promising recipients of an incentive by accessing a link.
SSS Senior Vice President for Member Services and Support Group Normita Doctor said the state pension fund has already sought the help of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to conduct an investigation into the matter.
Doctor urged victims to directly report such incidents to the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Anti-Cybercrime Group and National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) Cybercrime Division.
She raised concern over reports that members have received text alerts about benefit claims, expiring contribution payments, or My.SSS registration urging them to click a link.
“Do not click the link in the message of these fake text alerts. It will lead to a phishing site that will steal personal information, such as SS numbers and login credentials from My.SSS account,” Doctor said.
Members and the public can easily identify if the text alert they have received is a scam by checking its sender. The agency’s official text message should be “SSS,” while the official SSS website is www.sss.gov.ph.
“If it is an unidentified mobile number, it is a text message from scammers purposely sent to deceive its receiver,” Doctor said.
“Our SSS Special Investigation Department has already probed the incidents. We also submitted a text scam complaint containing these fake text alerts to the NTC to help the government fight scam text messages,” the SSS official added.
She discouraged members from sharing their SSS number, usernames, passwords, and other login details of their My.SSS account with the scammers so their My.SSS accounts would not be compromised and be used for fraudulent transactions.
“With the assistance of our SSS SID, victims can help law enforcement agencies in filing a case against text scammers. They can report text scammers to SID via email at fid@sss.gov.ph or through (02) 89247370,” Doctor said.
