New scam attempts affect Filipinos nearly every 2 days
MANILA, Philippines — As technology evolves, so do the ways scammers try to take advantage of innocent gadget users of their hard-earned cash.
Last November, mobile ecosystem organization GSMA published its ASEAN Consumer Scam study, indicating that over half (52%) of Filipinos have been scammed at least once in their lifetime, seven marks higher than the regional average.
The same report said 8% of Filipino respondents had been victimized in the past twelve months and reported scam exposure rose by 6% in the past year.
Scammers have even resorted to conducting their activities more on social media instead of via text messages, over-the-top messaging applications, and voice calls.
"Trust is being eroded faster than it is being rebuilt," said GSMA's Asia-Pacific head Julian Gorman. Industry and government must move from isolated initiatives to fully coordinated, data-driven defence if we are to protect consumers and sustain the country's digital-growth story."
A separate study by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance last year involving a thousand Filipino adults said over three quarters have encountered a scam.
Filipino respondents on average encountered a scam every two days, equal to 239 scam encounters on average per person per year, and almost P12,000 is lost to scams per person.
Cross-platform social communication app Rakuten Viber took note of scammers now utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and social engineering to "professionalize fraud" and create highly specialized attacks rather than generic scams.
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New breed
One example of using AI for scams is fraudsters making use of it to deepfake their voices and calls to replicate the speech patterns, accents and emotional cues of a person.
It's an evolution of impersonating the identity of friends and relatives since people are aware that being asked for money over chat is a red flag, but "hearing" loved ones do the same can be more alarming.
Scamming via messages is still prominent, though these scammers use generative AI to scrape one's public presence and create hyper-personalized messages — complete with nuances and professional contexts — to mimic official communication from banks, government agencies and telecommunication companies.
Similar to this are scammers using SMS blasters or international mobile subscriber identity catchers to hijack cell towers and intercept actual text threads with a person's banks, telecom providers and government agencies.
By doing so, fraudsters can send trap messages that are identical or indistinguishable from actual messages from official parties.
Even online selling scams have evolved as scammers are putting up fake e-commerce stores, ticketing platforms, and technology retailers with links similar to recognized ones and purchasing ads space to make these website look credible.
Scammers are also taking advantage of people going cashless through quishing or QR code phishing, a cyberattack that embeds malicious links in QR codes.
Upon scanning the tainted QR code, users can be redirected to fake log-in pages for e-wallets or banks, where credentials and financial details can be stolen or malware will be unknowingly downloaded or installed.
Lastly, fraudsters try to message would-be victims on safe platforms, often disguised as fake urgent alerts or supposed banking issues, with the intention of moving the conversation to less secure ones where it would be easier to take advantage of them digitally.
"Scams are a pervasive, damaging part of our digital life. They are a serious issue that could cost a lifetime's worth of savings and bring mental distress," said Rakuten Viber's Chief Technology Officer Liad Shnell in a statement. "Even the most careful people can fall for scams; these cybercriminals don't care who they steal from."
Shnell noted that scammers are adapting to new technologies and methods but assured that security experts are constantly studying fraud schemes to reduce exposure to scams, advising the public to do the same.
