PH digital fraud rate tops global figure

THE Philippines posted a suspected digital fraud rate of 8.2 percent in the first half of 2023, a US consumer credit reporting firm said, with video gaming and retail transactions particularly targeted.

The video gaming sector in the country saw the highest digital fraud attempt rate during the first half amid the continued increase in overall digital transactions.

Based on the latest analysis of TransUnion, fraudsters have been on the rise as consumers and businesses here and abroad get used to transacting digitally.

In the Philippines, the suspected digital fraud rate stood at 8.2 percent from January to June. The rate is above the global average of 5.3 percent during the period.

Specifically, the video gaming industry had the highest suspected digital fraud attempt rate among all industries at 15.2 percent.

This developed despite a 19.4-percent decline in the number of digital transactions for the sector.

The video gaming industry was followed by the retail sector with suspected digital fraud attempt rate of 11.3 percent while financial services came in third with 8.3 percent.

Other sectors include insurance (7.1 percent), communities such as online dating and forums (five percent), logistics (4.6 percent), travel and leisure (3.1 percent) and telecommunications (2.4 percent).

The latest TransUnion analysis also came on the heels of the recent third quarter Philippine Consumer Pulse study which looked into consumer awareness of being targeted by any online, email, phone call or text messaging fraud attempt.

The survey showed that 62 percent of Filipinos had been targeted by fraud but only nine percent fell victim to the scheme.

Among those targeted, the most frequent fraud schemes were phishing, smishing, and money and gift card scams.

2023OmnichannelFraud-RPR-US_EN-US

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Source: Transunion and Philstar

DICT: Scammers adapt to SIM Registration Act

Scammers have “re-programmed” their approach to text scams, from sending messages to putting up fake SIM registration sites to capture personal information online, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) warned the public yesterday.

At a Palace briefing, DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said the scammers provide a fake site where subscribers supposedly can register their SIM cards.

“So the text scams are rising, and most of them have redirected or re-program their approach,” Uy said when asked to comment about the text scams despite the implementation of Republic Act 11934 or the SIM Registration Act.

“They are asking people if they have already registered their SIM card and if not, they tell them to click this link and go to their site, which is fake,” the DICT chief said.

Uy said the text scammers would be able to capture subscribers’ data if they key in their information on the provided bogus link.

“Subscribers will receive a text coming from e-wallet provider telling them that if they registered their SIM card they still need to re-register in the e-wallet to be able to activate it,” he said.

Uy said once a SIM card is registered there is no need for the user to have it registered for their e-wallet accounts.

“Do not fall for those scams,” he said.

President Marcos has approved a 90-day extension of the mandatory SIM registration deadline originally set on April 26.

The government, Uy said, hopes subscribers will register their SIM cards to put an end to the avenue of defrauding people through text messages.

He said there would be no more extension to the July 26 deadline for the SIM card registration.

Source: Philstar

Dito warns vs land scam

As a lot of our customers are still getting contacted by scammers, a repeat of the communication of the Dito Telecommunity Corp. in regards to site acquisitions.

Third telecommunications player Dito Telecommunity Corp. is warning landowners against groups or individuals claiming to be representatives of the company for site acquisitions.

In an advisory, Dito said the locations for the con­struction of its towers, base stations, and other similar structures for its roll-out and launch have already been predetermined.

These were included in the plan it submitted to the government even before July last year, Dito said.

Dito said it has so far appointed four authorized repre­sentatives or vendors to assist in site acquisition namely, Huawei for North Luzon and NCR, ZTE for South Lu­zon and the Visayas, Nokia-Huaxin for Mindanao, and Udenna Infrastructure Corp.

“These vendors and their agents have been provided authorization letters and identification. Dito has dis­closed the identities of these vendors and their agents to the respective local government units,” it said.

Dito pointed out that none of its representatives and agents promise lump sum rental payment to landowners, as the company only provides a maximum three months advance on monthly rentals to landowners based on the memorandum.

The company and any of its representatives and agents also never request or demand advance payment or pro­cessing fees from landowners, it said.

Dito said it never requests or asks for commissions from landowners.

“We wish to assure the public that anyone caught misrepresenting themselves as employees or representa­tives of Dito Telecommunity or any of its vendors will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” it said.

Dito, a consortium of state-owned China Telecom­munications Corp. and Dennis Uy’s Udenna Corp. and Chelsea Logistics and Infrastructure, vowed to make available its network for commercial use by March next year or earlier.