Here are the most common scams in the Philippines during Christmas—and how to avoid each one

Online shopping scams

Scammers generally use three platforms: a fake Facebook account pretending to be a legitimate shopping website, a fake shopping website, and a fake account selling fake products. 

One scammer victimized a famous director, who clicked on a shopping link they thought was IKEA but turned out to be a fake website. The URL had an extra "i" in "Ikea," which the director did not notice. They paid P12,000 through a legitimate payment gateway but did not receive any of the products they shopped for. 

How to avoid it:

1. Use only legitimate online shopping apps. These have a security feature that only releases payment once the buyer expresses satisfaction with the delivered product. 

2. Avoid chatting with merchants on e-commerce sites who promise more discounts if the customer pays directly via a payment gateway instead of through the shopping app. 

Fake deliveries

According to reported scams, false delivery riders usually text their victims messages, such as: "May delivery po kayo ngayon. Nawawala po ako. Isesend ko po 'yung link; paki-update po 'yung address niyo."

The link they send will lead victims to a phishing website, which gets all their credentials the moment they click on it. 

How to avoid it:

1. Take note of the driver's name and contact details for easier reporting in case of a scam. 

2. Avoid third-party transactions as much as possible. 

3. Track orders and their delivery dates to avoid accidentally paying for fake orders. 

Phishing calls

Usually, these scammers use a prepaid number to call and pretend to be employees of a bank or credit card company. Once the call is answered, they will offer a credit limit upgrade or other bank promos. They then ask for the victim's name and other personal information, including their credit card number. 

How to avoid it:

Remember that you are not obliged to share any information about yourself with anyone. 

Fake job offers

Victims might receive a message from an unknown number pretending to be from a popular e-commerce site and offering them a job. 

These messages usually begin with "Hi po," followed by a link that's supposed to lead you to the mechanics of the task or job. Do not click on the link as it will lead you to a phishing website. 

How to avoid it:

Ignore calls or messages from unknown numbers. Answering the call or replying to the message will tell the scammer that your number is active, encouraging them to keep using it for more scams. 

Fraudulent investments

Once a personal connection is made, investment scammers will offer 100% returns on a cryptocurrency investment within a month. They may also encourage victims to invest in gold, since its value has risen in the past months.

How to avoid it:

1. Ask for a second Securities and Exchange Commission license. 

"For any financial investment, it's not enough that they show you a Securities and Exchange Commission license and the SEC registration of the company they represent. They also need to show you a secondary license since SEC requires one from any investment company before they get approved [to operate]," said De Guzman.

2. Check the legitimacy of an investment company in the CheckwithSEC app, which can be downloaded for free at Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. 

3. Do your due diligence, even with people you know. 

Love baiting

Carried out on dating apps, love scammers pretend affection for vulnerable victims. When the connection seems solid, they will then introduce the investment scam.

According to Scam Watch Pilipinas, the usual targets in this scam are individuals 45 years old and older, widows or widowers, singles, or those whose children have left the family home. 

How to avoid it:

Unmatch and break all communication once they ask for money and appeal to your pity.

Deceptive loans

According to De Guzman, these usually target the masses, who are led to illegitimate online lending apps that offer easy loans but with large daily interest rates. 

These illegal apps stick out because they are web-based; they cannot be downloaded on the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. 

Once the victim tries to download the app through these illegitimate online lending apps, the scammers ask permission to access their address book, even photos. If they decline, they can't proceed to download the app. 

If the victim is unable to pay back the loan, the scammers will call everyone in the victim's address book to humiliate the victim. In some cases, said De Guzman, the scammers sent funeral flowers to the borrowers. 

How to avoid it:

Borrow money only from legitimate apps (check reviews) and banks. 

Impersonation

The scammers will hack their victims' Facebook accounts, which they will have access to once the victims click on fraudulent links sent to them via Facebook Messenger. 

Having hacked a Facebook account, the scammers will then contact the victim's Facebook friends pretending to be the victim, and ask to borrow money. 

How to avoid it:

1. Report it to 1326, CICC's national anti-scam hotline.

2. Have a semblance of your legal name in your Facebook account name. To help recover your account, Meta and CICC will ask for an ID that shows your Facebook account name. Without such an ID, the process will take longer, said De Guzman.

3. If you receive a message from a Facebook friend asking to borrow money, verify before acting on it. 

Travel hoaxes

Scammers will offer a hotel stay but will charge victims an extra fee outside of the "discounted" room rate. To complete the scam, victims will be asked to transfer the extra fee to a bank account. 

How to avoid it:

Book tickets and hotel stays directly in official apps

Charity scams

Many take advantage of the spirit of the season or natural calamities to send out solicitations from made-up non-government organizations or even the Department of Social Welfare and Development, according to De Guzman. 

How to avoid it:

1. Coordinate directly with the charity's official social media account, which usually appear with a check mark. 

2. Don't trust QR codes that are under an individual's name and not an organization's. 

Middleman operatives

This scam takes place when a fraudster pretends to mediate between a legitimate buyer and seller. They will control communication and payment between the parties. 

The scammer asks the buyer to send payment to them instead of to the seller, and convinces the seller that payment has already been made or is on the way. Both seller and buyer will be victimized when the fraudster disappears with the money or the product, or both. 

How to avoid it:

1. Shop in official online and physical stores. 

2. If you have to shop online, don't pay in advance, and give the money straight to the vendor. 

Online gambling scam

Although the incidence of online gambling scams has gone down by 93%, according to De Guzman, it is still ongoing. 

An SMS from an unknown number tells victims they can win millions if they click a URL that supposedly leads to a gambling website. 

How to avoid it:

Never click links sent by unknown numbers.

Other preventive measures

The anti-scam campaign of Scam Watch Pilipinas and CICC is fully supported by the PNP and NBI, as well as other private groups, including tech company Gogolook.

With Gogolook's Whoscall app, Filipinos have a ready tool to help them deal with scams. The app has a caller ID identification feature, content checker function, and an ID security check.

Downloadable for free through Google Play and the Apple App Store, Whoscall can tell users if the unknown number calling them is a scammer or potential scammer based on the billions of scam numbers in its database. 

Subscribers can also use the app to check whether a URL or domain name is fraudulent. The photo of a suspicious website will also work. 

Additionally, through the app's ID security check, users can see if their mobile number or email address has had a data leak. 

But the biggest action that can help, said De Guzman, is if people keep reporting scams to CICC's 1326. Only with enough data can anti-scam efforts protect more people.