YOU feel your chest tighten as you let pity get the best of you while reading the story behind the heavily-bandaged patient lying in a hospital bed, tubes running out of his mouth. Imbedded in the picture is a GCash number, purportedly for donations from kind individuals, like you.
Your kind heart melts and you want to give some cash.
But, what if everything there is just made up so a scammer can take your money?
Do not give as yet, warns Bohol’s Cyber Response Team leader and digital forensics expert Police Lieutenant Aileen Marie Remedio, adding that a scam uses exactly the same modus to bleed people of their hard-earned money.
Lt. Remedio, a relatively small lady police officer who cane can easily be mistaken as a college student, guested the weekly Strategic Information Broadcasting in Internet and other Access (SIBIA) to share information about online scams, the leading cyber-crime victimizing innocent Boholanos, divesting them of cash.
SIBIA is a regular broadcast event of the Bohol Provincial Police Office, is an innovation for the Provincial Police Community Affairs and Development Unit (PCADU) under Police Lieutenant Colonel Norman Nuez, who is the program anchor along with police beat-box king Police Corporal Aldrin Palaca.
IN NEED OF MONEY SCAM
Tackling cyber scamming, to increase awareness and get people informed to be protected, Remedios on SIBIA bared that among the most common is “in need for money scam,” a ploy that has hackers stealing internet-posted pictures of patients and claiming them as relatives helping the patient get treatment.
First, it is an identity theft, the patient does not even know his situation is used to fool people of their money, she shared.
The GCash number is often that of the hacker’s controlled number, the money sent does not necessarily help the patient.
TASK SCAM
She said another popular modus is “Task Scam,” which often victimizes Internet users of WhatsAPP and Telegram applications.
If you are a user of these said apps, somebody randomly messages you and offers you commissions for completed tasks, she shared.
It is too irresistible, you would be asked to watch videos, share content, like and comment, and you could get some commissions, she explained.
The catch comes when the pay-off comes. This entails linking the person’s GCash to a website, where at first, small commissions are received.
When the website has access to the GCash account, the website then asks for recharging, where the internet user is asked to invest, to get a bigger commission. When he invests, the website is usually taken down, and the investment along with it.
A total of about P400k has been lost from Boholanos, using this modus, the digital investigator said.
BUY AND SELL ONLINE
Another online scam, Buy and Sell involves too good to be true goods sold and bought online which usually entails electronic payments.
You see an item you love. What is more is that it is sold online at a tempting price cut, but the only payment option is through credit card or electronic-money. Be wary.
Saying these are signs that a rip-off is in the offing, she warned.
As soon as your payment is consummated, the item, or the seller’s address is taken down, leaving the buyer without any chance to get his money back.
Cash on delivery is usually preferred, she advanced the information.
This also provides a venue to check on the delivered item and return them if these are not the ones you ordered, she continued.
Also a variation of this is delivery scam, where innocent individuals get deliveries they need to pay, something they did not order. This usually happens, when the supposed addressee is not home, that members of the household pay for the items in good faith, to realize later that, not only did they get useless items, the delivery fee was also wasted.
LOTTERY SCAM
Often victimizing those who have no or little knowledge of technology, this entails getting a text message informing the victims that she won a huge amount.
The catch however is that she would have to pay a certain processing fee, clearing fee, which is always a small fraction of the winnings.
A recent modus expands the scam by putting in a deadline when the winnings can be claimed, forcing the innocent victim to quickly source out the money for processing.
The scammer then asks the money to be sent through money transfer, and is often claimed via money remittance centers that do not demand valid identifications and other extra layer of security for customer satisfaction.
LOVE OR ROMANCE SCAM
This kind of scam often victimizes those who frequent dating sites, the young official explained.
Filipinas who are dreaming of the life marrying the rich foreigner often gets to this, as many scammers pose themselves as the typical foreigner, stealing profile pictures and building a network of personalities to validate the claim.
As soon as a relationship starts, the scamming also shifts to money.
Usually, the fiancée in collusion with other scammers, notify the victims that a package has arrived and is now being held for some unpaid tax duties.
The tax is usually a quarter of the entire cost of the alleged arriving package, making it irresistible for the recipient to pay the duties.
As the payment is sent, they are then notified that the package contains illegally shipped items and has to be confiscated.
WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF SCAMS?
According to Lt Remedio, the first step to avoid being victims is to be aware and vigilant.
1. Do not give out any personal information, especially when these are one time passwords, to anyone. A shared OTP means giving the person access to your accounts, which can be opened though the password remotely.
2. Create very strong passwords for your accounts and hide them so nobody else can access these. A strong password is always a combination of capital and small letters, numbers and special characters.
3. Do not click on suspicious links. Clicking on spurious links can allow unwittingly allow the clicked site to access your personal data, which can be used to hack your system, get to your friends and contacts.
4. Do not leave your personal social media accounts logged in when using a public computer, log them out when you are not using it. Not logging out allows the next person using your computer to get into your account. Always protect your accounts.
5. When somebody borrows you money through text or messenger, call the person, or wait until you can personally check on the veracity of the need.
6. Do not post your mobile numbers on facebook or any social media sites, this is an invitation for scammers.
7. Report any suspicious scamming attempt to your nearest police station, or to the BCRT at camp Dagohoy.
Over all these, Lt Remedio urges every one to be smart and to be careful online. (PIABohol)
