The PLDT Group on Friday warned the public against AI-crafted phishing emails as local authorities expect online scams to rise during the holidays.
The PLDT Cyber Security Operations Group said that cyber criminals were not only getting better at mimicking legitimate emails, but were also using artificial intelligence (AI) to make their messages more convincing.
“AI-crafted emails contain more polished, personalized messages that imitate the writing style of humans,” PLDT, Smart and ePLDT first vice president and chief information security officer Angel Redoble said.
“They also contain authentic looking visual cues that trick victims into believing that they are reading official messages from their banks or organizations,” Redoble said.
Citing an initial study of Germany-based cybersecurity awareness training service provider SoSafe, CSOG said victims were more likely to reveal their personal information through phishing messages authored by AI.
“The most important thing is to know who the email is from. Remembering the very basic rule of not talking to strangers can protect people from being victimized by scammers,” said Redoble.
PLDT and Smart said they remain relentless in keeping customers secure from cyber-attacks.
The PLDT Group said it prevented almost 17 billion attempts to open malicious domains in the first eleven months of 2023 after it blacklisted more than five million malicious URLs and links tied to phishing, spams, hoaxes and other illegal activities.
It also blocked more than 60 million SMShing messages from reaching customers in the same period.
Smart said it blacklisted more than 290,000 mobile numbers being used in nefarious activities from its network in the first 11 months of 2023.