President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday ordered the Philippines National Police to boost its cybersecurity systems amid an increase in cybercrime incidents last year.
“As we dissected these crime statistics, there is a need for us to focus on cybercrime. Cybercrime cases went up during the last quarter of 2023,” Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said in a press briefing after a sectoral meeting at the Palace led by the President.
The PNP earlier reported a 12.2 percent increase in cyber identity theft cases last year.
PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda said the top five most common cybercrimes recorded from July 2022 to January 2024 were swindling or estafa with around 15,000 cases, illegal access with over 4,800 cases, identity theft with more than 2,300 cases, online libel with over 2,000 cases, and credit card fraud with nearly 2,000 cases.
“As instructed by our President, we are intensifying, we are capacitating our police officers on the ground especially as of previously, our cybercrime group was only up to the regional level,” Acorda said.
He said the majority of the cybercrimes committed are linked to online scams.
Also included in the PNP’s list of most prevalent cybercrimes in the country are online threats, data interferences, anti-photo and video voyeurism, unjust vexation, and computer-related fraud.
“Admittedly, the main problem we have there is identifying the perpetrators. We struggled because they are often hidden, especially because the accounts they use are sometimes or often fictitious,” Acorda said.
Earlier, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) and its private partners warned the public against the proliferation of “love scams” as Valentine’s Day draws near.
CICC executive director Undersecretary Alexander Ramos said love scams involve cybercriminals who take advantage of the emotional vulnerability of their victims in several ways.
“With love scams, year in, year out, they always have victims. And no one is safe, whether you’re young or old,” Ramos said.
Using the “sad boy, sad girl” ploy, scammers reach out to their victims— usually through social media or other messaging platforms— by telling them a sad story, appealing to their pity, and eventually borrowing money.
The “seducers,” meanwhile, are scammers that lure their victims using attractive profile pictures, sharing and asking for private information, initiating sexual conversations, and eventually asking for nude photos to be used for blackmail.
“Most victims are not only women, but also from the LGBT. We’re actually receiving a lot of reports from that sector,” he said.
On the other hand, the “investors” – usually foreigners – share “mega lifestyle” photos, respond like robots in conversations, and entice their victims to invest in foreign exchange or cryptocurrency, while the “servicemen” are scammers who pose as middle-aged foreigners who work in the military and are assigned in Asia or the Middle East.
ScamWatchPH founder Jocel De Guzman said the public could avoid falling victim to such scams by being skeptical of messages they receive out of the blue, being stingy with their money, ignoring, and reporting these messages, and other suspicious activities to the anti-scam hotline 1326.