Clickbait

Our financial institutions have invested fully in state-of-the-art defenses against cybercrimes. All the efforts notwithstanding, fraud continues to happen as cybercriminals innovate to keep ahead of the game.

A lot of the scams that proliferate rely less on the technical vulnerabilities of our financial systems and more on pure psychological manipulation to deceive intended victims into divulging sensitive information. These manipulative methods are now referred to as “social engineering” in the catalogue of cyberthreats.

Among the most common tactics of “social engineering” used by cybercriminals is the inducement of a compelling sense of urgency on the part of the intended victim. Attackers create an artificial crisis to pressure targeted individuals into acting hastily to comply with malicious instructions without carefully assessing the legitimacy of particular requests for personal information.

Phishing emails, for instance, might claim that an account faces suspension unless requested information is provided by the intended victim. By instilling fear, cybercriminals reduce the likelihood of the target thinking critically before responding. In this method, the target is left no alternative except compliance with sensitive information requests.

Creating a false sense of urgency is actually an old tactic. Remember how it used to be that domestic helpers were duped with phone calls claiming their employers were rushed to a hospital and instructing them to take out money or valuables. Today’s cybercriminals simply moved this tactic online.

This particular tactic requires some amount of casing by criminals. In this digital world, the casing may be done with the assistance of artificial intelligence used for criminal purposes. The target accounts may be cased and some personal information may be gathered to disguise the attack. Spear phishing attacks involve the use of highly personalized messages using information from open sources such as social media accounts.

Our banks regularly inform their clients that legitimate organizations rarely, if ever, request personal data such as passcodes, one-time passwords (OTPs) or other personal details through email or phones. Account holders are instructed to verify such request with their banks before giving out any sensitive information. So much teamwork between financial service provider and their clients is required to combat scams.

In addition to fostering a false sense of urgency, cybercriminals also exploit other human emotions such as trust or curiosity. By impersonating a trusted authority figure to lend credibility to their demands, cybercriminals use enticing lines in emails that prompt recipients to click on malicious links or download harmful attachments. Using a clickbait evolved with technology.

Financial institutions do everything to keep their publics aware of the latest clickbait tactics. Once a targeted individual releases sensitive information in response to scamming tactics, there is little that cybersecurity systems can do.

If all the ingenuity expended by scammers were instead used for virtuous purposes, we would be a prosperous nation by now.

Trust

If there is one thing the recent crop of public opinion polls show, it is that our public desperately wants to trust the institutions that govern us.

The June 2025 survey done by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) tells us that public trust in the Executive and Legislative branches of government rebounded significantly. Given all that happened the past year, all the scandals and controversies, this might seem a little surprising.

Mainstream media highlighted the 10-point recovery in President Bongbong Marcos’ trust rating. Although his rating remains below the midpoint threshold, it is significant improvement nevertheless. The recovery in his rating is attributed to a program of more intensive public visibility launched after the rather lukewarm results of the midterm elections.

This visibility program is likely to continue. The Palace recently announced the appointment of Dave Gomez as the fifth press secretary of the Marcos II administration. Gomez, in turn, asked for the courtesy resignation of all appointees in the presidential communications office. The revamp of the communications team indicates public acceptance of the Chief Executive remains a serious concern.

The rebound of public trust in the House of Representatives might even be more surprising. The June survey may be considered a public assessment of three years of work by the 19th Congress.

Over the past few months, the House has been the subject of intense public scrutiny. The high-profile public hearings tended to divide public opinion. The manner allocations were shifted in the national budget was severely criticized. The House effort to oust Vice President Sara Duterte threatened to overshadow the chamber’s other activities.

Despite all these, however, the House leadership proved to be stable. Lesser issues produced coups against the House leadership in the past. Over the past three years, however, the chamber experienced continuity of leadership with Martin Romualdez at the helm.

The continuity of leadership enabled the passage of key pieces of legislation important for supporting our economy’s growth. These pieces of legislation allowed the Marcos administration to shape over-all development policies according to its “Bagong Pilipinas” roadmap.

To be sure, much work still has to be put in to upgrade the chamber’s responsiveness and transparency. Calls, for instance, for the bicameral conference committee to be more open and more accountable in shaping the national expenditure program have been echoed by the President himself.

The latest surveys showing improved trust rating for the House will surely boost Romualdez’s effort to retain the speakership. A large majority of old and new representatives have indicated support for the continuing the chamber’s leadership.