By Katherine K. Chan, Reporter
THE PHILIPPINES is among the hotspots for cyber fraud in Southeast Asia, with nearly 80% of Filipinos exposed to scams, according to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foundation.
ASEAN Foundation Executive Director Piti Srisangnam said scam centers have recently spread to the Philippines, Myanmar, and Timor-Leste from Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
“In the old days, most of the scam centers (were) concentrated, especially on the borders between Cambodia and Thailand and Cambodia and Vietnam,” he told a press briefing during the launch of the “Scam Ready ASEAN Program” in the Philippines on Monday.
“But after the military operations that happened throughout the past one or two years, right now scam centers (have) spread… and you see some activities in the borders of Myanmar, in the Philippines, and in Timor-Leste as well,” he added.
Citing a Global Anti-Scam Alliance study, Mr. Srisangnam noted that scammers reach about eight in every 10 Filipinos, a number also recorded by its regional peers.
“In the Philippines alone, nearly 80% of Filipinos… get contacted by scammers, which is very, very huge, right? In other countries, (it’s) about the same amount,” he said.
According to Mr. Srisangnam, “high-yield” investment scams have emerged as the most common type of cyber fraud across the region.
“Actually, we share a lot in common, from pig butchering that tricks you to invest in cryptocurrencies or any kind of financial instrument that you don’t know but, you know, lure you with high returns. That’s the first thing that we encounter,” he said.
Love scams and scams where individuals pose as one’s relatives are also among the top kinds of cyber fraud in ASEAN, he added.
Against this backdrop, the Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines (BMAP), together with the ASEAN Foundation, Google, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), launched the Philippine leg of its capacity-building initiative “Scam Ready ASEAN Program.”
The ASEAN-wide program was first launched on April 28 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The program, led by the ASEAN Foundation, seeks to help three million individuals across the region to tackle scams through the network of 2,000 “master trainers” it aims to build.
As of writing, the initiative only has a total of 105 “master trainers.”
In the Philippines alone, BMAP Director for Programs Catherine Rowena “Peewee” B. Villanueva said they are targeting around one million program beneficiaries.
“So, this program is rolled out in ASEAN, but it’s actually distinct in each country because we had to localize it,” Ms. Villanueva said. “If you saw a while ago, the game, the walkthrough that they did was the ASEAN game. However, we are developing it to make it more relatable here in the country.”
Under the program, the ASEAN Foundation, through Google, also launched the “Scam Ready” game, which allows users to interactively learn about identifying and handling fraudulent schemes.
However, the program’s localized version is not yet available, with BMAP aiming to release it between December and January next year.
“Well, we’re looking at December to January as the full rollout, but we start in schools,” BMAP President Catherine P. Santamaria also said during the briefing. “We’ve selected with the Department of Education (and) the Knowledge Channel. We will select schools so that we can roll out because we have a target to try to hit those 1 million beneficiaries.”
BMAP officials added that they plan to train senior citizens, teachers, farmers, fisherfolks, and overseas Filipino workers.
Speaking during the program launch, BSP Deputy Governor Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said regulators and industry leaders should go beyond merely promoting awareness to creating more concrete actions
“Fighting scams requires more than awareness. It requires action and collaboration,” Ms. Romulo-Puyat said.
“Protecting consumers is a shared responsibility, and by working together, we can build stronger safeguards to protect Filipinos, their hard-earned savings, and the trust they place in our financial system,” she added.
Meanwhile, Alain Bert G. Regis, director of the BSP Consumer Account Protection Office, also noted during the launch that they have signed an information-sharing deal with the Philippine National Police (PNP) for cases related to the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA).
The PNP is the fifth government agency with which the BSP has an AFASA deal.
The central bank has signed similar pacts with the National Bureau of Investigation, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, and the Securities and Exchange Commission in February, as well as the Department of Justice in July.
Last year, the BSP issued the implementing rules and regulations of AFASA, giving banks a year or until June 25 of this year to tighten their respective fraud management systems.
The central bank has warned that failure to comply could result in license suspension, but later noted that banks and other financial institutions were broadly compliant as of the deadline.
“The BSP remains committed to working closely with public and private sector partners to strengthen fraud prevention efforts, promote digital trust, and protect Filipinos from scams and other cyber-enabled threats,” the central bank said in a statement.