Cybercrime complaints triple in 2024 – CICC

MANILA, Philippines — Although cybercrimes in the country tripled in 2024 compared to 2023, authorities saw the exponential rise in numbers as a positive development.

According to the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), they received a total of 10,004 complaints in 2024, compared to only 3,317 in 2023.

Meanwhile, the total amount lost by cybercrime victims in 2024 reached almost P198 million, the first ever statistics on actual losses to cybercrime released by the agency.

Alexander Ramos, CICC executive director, said the numbers showed that the public was now more willing to report complaints with the authorities.

“In previous years, people were not aware that they were being scammed and many were not also aware on where to file their complaints,” he said.

“We also owe this to our partners who have been encouraging the public to report to our hotline or through other channels and platforms,” Ramos added.

Based on CICC data, consumer fraud accounted for 3,534 or 35 percent of the total complaints received. These included non-delivery of goods or services (86 percent) and fake advertisement (eight percent).

Complaints of online fraud accounted for 3,242 or 32 percent. This comprised of financial fraud (957), impersonation (920), job scam (396), investment scam (396) and love scam (72).

Other types of complaints received included unsolicited communication, illegal access, identity theft, sexual cybercrime, phishing and cyberlibel.

The CICC statistics show that Gcash was the top wallet used by victims of consumer fraud, online fraud and phishing, recording a loss of P76.49 million.

Other financial platforms used by victims included BPI (P28.47 million), Gotyme (P15.38 million) and Paymaya (P13.99 million).

CICC urged victims of scams to call the Inter-Agency Response Center hotline 1326 which is toll-free and operates around the clock from Mondays to Sundays including holidays.