MANILA, Philippines – A center manned by 80 people in Quezon City is solely tasked with immediately assisting victims of scams and cybercrime, centralizing communications for various government agencies in charge of law enforcement and regulation.
To reach this center, just dial 1326.
Raising awareness on the existence of this hotline is one mission of Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) Executive Director Undersecretary Alexander Ramos.
He sat down for an interview with Rappler’s head of community Pia Ranada in a Be The Good episode, aired on Friday, February 21.
The CICC, an agency under the Department of Information and Communications Technology, operates from the National Cybercrime Hub in Taguig City. But the Inter-Agency Response Center (IARC), operates the 1326 hotline from Quezon City. The center received over 10,000 complaints in 2024 which is three times the number in 2023. CICC also recorded a total of P198 million lost by cybercrime victims.
“There may have been changes in figures, but the types of victims are still the same. These are repeat victims. But what evolves is the style of deceiving people online,” Ramos said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Since the agency’s establishment in 2012, CICC has received reports of how modus operandi evolved over time. Among the common forms of scams reported to CICC are consumer fraud, financial fraud, impersonation or phishing, job scam, investment scam, and love scam. The usual amount scammed from every user ranges from P5,000 to as high as P50,000.
Many Filipinos have been victimized by love scams, in which the scammer fools the target into thinking they are in a romantic relationship, only to manipulate the victim into giving them money. CICC received 72 reports of love scams in 2024. (WATCH: How to avoid love scams)
Another common mode of financial fraud is through text scams wherein scammers send text messages with links spoofing bank alerts and e-wallet notifications regarding account updating, or making users believe that they have won prize draws or raffle promos. In other instances, these text messages claim you will lose money or face other severe consequences if you don’t click the link and give some personal data.
Clicking the links attached to these text messages will give scammers access to your personal information stored in your device which they can use to further access your bank accounts and social media profiles.
In an attempt to address this, network providers banned the use of links and URLs in text messages. For a time, claims Ramos, complaints about such scams decreased. But fraudsters eventually found loopholes in regulation or took advantage of evolving features of communications technology.
For instance, while the SIM card registration law is supposed to combat text scams, scammers use the five free text messages they receive in order to facilitate SIM registration to create fake accounts or hijack other accounts.
“Try to imagine you have five free texts, you can already create five fictitious accounts. So after that, stolen and fake accounts proliferated – from e-wallet to social media accounts. So you thought, you’re able to identify the name of the account owner, turns out, it’s stolen identity. It evolved, from text messages to fake accounts,” said Ramos.
Consumer fraud is another common scam, accounting for 35% of complaints received by CICC in 2024. It’s when scammers pretend to be selling items, only to ghost the victim once payment is sent. This is easy for scammers since they can just grab photos online to use as proof that the products are on-hand, which will encourage victims to settle payments at once.
Keeping safe from scams
Fraudulent activities are usually done online, but victims are diverse – from chronically online users in urban areas to connectivity-limited users in rural communities. Scams are the great equalizer, both the ultra-rich and extremely impoverished can fall for them.
“The victimization is the same, the only difference is the amount that’s stolen from you,” said Ramos.
But for illegal trafficking, most victims come from the rural areas, said Ramos. He attributed this to lack of awareness in remote places about the online tactics used by traffickers to lure victims. This is why the CICC has embarked on awareness-raising campaigns and roadshows in rural areas.
To immediately respond to scams and cybercrime, the CICC is urging victims to report to their toll-free hotline, 1326. The hotline brings callers in contact with the Inter-Agency Response Center (IARC), a center manned by 80 people.
The IARC is a centralized communications hub that can quickly relay incidents to other government agencies like the National Telecommunications Commission, National Privacy Commission, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, among others.
One complaint they can handle expeditiously is the recovery of stolen or hacked social media accounts, said Ramos. He urged citizens to immediately and judiciously report scams since this helps the government track down perpetrators. A lot of law enforcement operations, including raids of illegal POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators), crackdowns on online sexual abuse, and more have resulted from reports.
The CICC chief’s top tips for protecting yourself from online manipulation? Don’t click suspicious links, always practice good digital hygiene, and take to heart the adage: “When it’s too good to be true, it’s a scam.” – Rappler.com/Godwin Lacdao
Godwin Lacdao is a volunteer for Rappler’s MovePH. He is a senior student taking up Bachelor of Arts in Broadcasting at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Manila. He is also a Core Member of DZMC-Young Communicators’ Guild, the official radio station of the PUP College of Communication.