The Social Security System (SSS) asked its members and the public to be cautious of deceptive text messages sent by unscrupulous individuals pretending to be SSS, promising its recipients an incentive by accessing a link.
SSS senior vice president for member services and support group Normita Doctor said the fund manager received reports from members that they got 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.
Doctor said its members and the public could easily identify if they have received a scam text alert by checking its sender.
“The SMS sender should be ‘SSS’, and 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,” she 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 National Telecommunications Commission to help the government fight scam text messages,” she said.
She discouraged members from sharing their SS number, usernames, passwords and other login details of their My.SSS account with scammers so their My.SSS accounts would not be compromised and be used for fraudulent transactions.
Doctor advised those who have become victims of the text scammers to directly report it to law enforcement agencies such as the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group and the National Bureau of Investigation’s Cybercrime Division.
“With the assistance of our SSS SID, victims can help law enforcement agencies in filing a case against text scammers,” she said.
