The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is intensifying measures against financial identity theft amid rising incidents in this prevailing pandemic.
The DTI said it will be establishing tracing capability and will cooperate with cybercrime divisions of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to identify perpetrators of the scheme.
“It just became more rampant nitong pandemic dahil siguro kailangan din ng mga tao so they have resorted to unscrupulous scheme (It just became more rampant during this pandemic maybe because they are in dire need so they have resorted to [this] unscrupulous scheme),” DTI USec. Ruth Castelo observed.
“We also have to be careful to protect ‘yung (our) credit card numbers natin… Do not give it away to anyone,” she advised.
Among the victims of the scheme is Jane, a credit card user, who was persuaded by a caller offering to increase her credit limit and the waiving of annual fees with thousands of cashback in exchange for information.
Jane recounted the call came from someone pretending to be a personnel of her card’s bank and was persistent in seeking personal information, including the one-time password (OTP) required when making online transactions. Her card was eventually used in an online shop with a bill of Php28,000.
Several banks have already advised their customers to report suspicious emails, messages, and calls from sources claiming to be their employees. The DTI warned that a series of charges can be filed against fraudsters once caught. – Report from Cleizl Pardilla
