Scammers becoming more sophisticated
SCAMMERS are becoming more sophisticated amid continuing efforts by the government and telecommunication firms to stop their fraudulent activities.
In fact, two government agencies have called on the public to be vigilant against very persistent online fraudsters.
Recently sounding the alarm is the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Earlier, the Philippine Post Office made a similar caution.
In light of recent online banking theft attempts made against some of its members and pensioners, the state pension fund called on the public to be careful against scammers and fraudsters posing as employees or representatives of GSIS over the phone or the Internet.
GSIS will never ask for our members’ and pensioners’ banking or e-wallet information. It strongly advised its members and pensioners against giving away personal information that would compromise not only their accounts but also their safety.
As digitalization advances, scammers become more sophisticated in using social engineering to fool people into revealing their financial account information, GSIS President and General Manager Wick Veloso said.
By pretending to be a GSIS representative, they would trick members and pensioners into divulging their confidential information, such as but not limited to their date of birth; one-time password (OTP); card verification value (CVV); personal identification number (PIN), and other unique information about their online banking accounts.
On the other hand, the Philippine Post Office earlier cautioned the public not to fall prey to a fraudulent phone call from individuals pretending to be part of the postal corporation.
The Post Office stressed it will never call its clients for any financial transaction.
The Post Office warned that scammers are using their computer skills to configure calls and make it appear that these are legitimate calls from the postal corporation’s Customer Service Hotline, (02) 8288-7678.
That official number, however, is being used by the Post Office for the sole purpose of entertaining inbound calls from the mailing public who are tracing the whereabouts of their mail or parcels.
It is never used for outgoing or outbound calls for verifications on senders or addressees of postal matters.
The warning was issued after three private citizens recently went to Cebu Post Office to inquire about the dubious phone calls which were confirmed to be “spoofed or cloned calls with an end view of extortion.”
The Post Office told the public not to entertain spoofed telephone calls by the scammer dubbed as “Mr. Vishing (voice phishing),” saying the scheme is to trick potential victims into giving personal information and money by instilling fear in them.
Based on the initial information gathered, the modus operandi began in November 2022, asking would-be victims for their personal information through text or online messaging.
In this case, the callers would then tell the targets that they ‘had discovered an outbound mail or parcel containing illegal substances purportedly sent by the prospective victim through the postal service.
They then claim that these parcels are bound for Malaysia, Thailand or any foreign country but were allegedly ‘shipped and intercepted at Cebu Central Post Office’ or at any post office.
Mr. Vishing’ would then refer them to a ‘local police’ who would then use their social engineering skills to instill fear on these victims for them to avoid ‘legal entanglements’.
The victims are then duped or coerced (even by video calls) to shell out huge amounts of money for protection to avoid trial and possible imprisonment.
The Post Office advised the public not to give personal information over the phone to avoid falling prey to “Mr. Vishing.”
It is best and wise to check first the authenticity of the calls, emails, or texts that they receive from proper and legitimate sources or can access valuable information available online against vishing, phishing and other frauds.
The Post Office has already informed the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the National Telecommunications Commission to investigate the fraudulent scheme.
It has also sought the assistance of the Philippine National Police and its current telephone service provider to address the supposed package scam.
Meanwhile, the GSIS assured the public that it takes this issue seriously by ensuring that cybersecurity hygiene is observed in the workplace, and regularly reminding the public to be wary of the proliferation of scams.
Members, pensioners, and stakeholders must protect their sensitive personal data in order to prevent their hard-earned money from being stolen by these scammers.
Veloso urged the public to immediately report to GSIS any suspicious activity or unscrupulous individual posing as a GSIS employee.
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