Type of Text Scams in the Philippines

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ABS-CBNnews.com reports that text scam cases are rising in the Philippines that the National Bureau of Investigation Anti-Fraud and Computer Crime Division receives 10-20 complaints a day.  The current economic crisis is considered on this increasing cases.

I myself has received a couple of text messages that intends to scam.  Like, it says that my cellphone number has been chosen as a winner for a “raffle” draw with a tempting winning prize of a hundred thousand pesos, and that I should call them for the instructions on how to claim my prize.  Having been exposed to e-mail scams with similar content, I just ignore these text messages.  My father, nearly succumbed to one message he received. Good thing, I warned him beforehand.

Anyway, the bureau has classified the types of text scams in the Philippines which are:

The lottery/prize scam: The consumer will be contacted by SMS or e-mail with news that he/she has won a large sum of money, but in order to receive the winnings, he/she must first pay the taxes by depositing into a stranger’s account. The consumer sends the funds, but the winnings are never received.

The charity donation scam: The victim will be told that the culprit is a representative of either a fake charity organization or a recognized government foundation tasked to secure donations for a worthy cause. The victim will be given contact details and information on how he/she can donate via the fraudster.

The online auction purchase scam: The consumer with the winning bid in an online auction is instructed that the seller will only accept money transfer as a form of payment. The seller may also instruct the consumer to use a fictitious name for the transfer, to ‘protect themselves’ until the goods are received – but they never arrive.

The dugu-dugo or budul-budol scam: The victim will receive a call from someone who claims to be a family member stating that a loved one has been kidnapped or hurt, and will need the victim to make a transfer of money to a stranger to avoid the kidnapped relative from being harmed or to pay for medical expenses.

The recruitment scam: The victim will receive an offer to a job overseas from an individual who claims to represent an agency or the employer, and requests for a placement fee to be transferred to his/her account to facilitate the application process.

The business investment scam: A business may receive a request from a stranger posing as a representative of a major corporation offering the opportunity to become involved in a large commercial operation. The offer will involve very large financial returns and will require the victim to finance portions of the business venture. All payments will be required to be forwarded in amounts between P10,000 and P50,000. Examples of the requests for money include:

• Payment of legal fees
• Payment for the suppliers or subcontractors
• Payment for the registration costs
• Payment of business taxes

The Nigerian inheritance/legacy scam: The consumer is contacted, usually by email, by an individual claiming to be either a representative of the Nigerian government, a wealthy business person or the widow of a deposed leader. The trickster may claim that they have discovered a bank account belonging to a deceased citizen or has come into possession of a large sum of money. The trickster offers to share the proceeds if the consumer allows him/her to deposit the money into their bank account. The consumer is asked to provide their account details and other sensitive information. However, before the transaction takes place, an “unforeseen difficulty” occurs and additional fees from the victim are “necessary to overcome the problem”.

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