BSP warns public vs holiday scams

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has warned the public against holiday scams.
The BSP said there are 10 modes of operations that scammers usually do in order to get personal information from their victims:
- Text scams
- Phishing
- Spoofing
- Identity theft
- Nigerian scams
- Ponzi/Pyramiding scheme
- Spurious investments
- Credit card and ATM skimming
- Budol-budol scam
- Dugo-dugo gang
Several scammers, usually entice victims by telling them that they have won in a raffle or in a lottery.
Mhel Plabasan, Director of BSP’s Technology Risk and Innovation Supervision Department (TRISD, advises the public to be vigilant and think carefully before falling into scams.
“Immediately, i-report mo doon sa financial institution kung saan ka nagme-maintain ng account. They are in the best position para i-hold or i-block muna iyong account. Tapos, magko-conduct sila ng investigation (You should immediately report it to the financial institution where you maintain your account. They are in the best position to hold or block your account. Then they will conduct an investigation),“ he said.
Meanwhile, Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson PBGen. Ildebrandi Usana also advised the public to be careful in making transactions this holiday season.
“We really are appealing doon po sa ating mga mamamayan to be more prudent in dealing with someone na nakikipagkilala at probably nagbibigay ng mga messages appearing to be true pero may kaakibat na mga babayarin without them knowing it. Nagkaroon na po ng mga scams out of these (We are appealing to our citizens to be more prudent in dealing with someone who is making acquaintances and providing messages that are appearing to be true but there is a catch. There have been scams reported that are similar to this),” he said. —AAC (with reports from Asher Cadapan Jr.)