In 2024, the Philippines recorded a total of 6,157,517 text message scams, according to data from caller identification service provider Whoscall. The fourth quarter saw the highest concentration, with 2,079,968 incidents, accounting for 33.8% of the annual total. December alone registered 708,005 reported scams, coinciding with the holiday season.
Mel Migriño, country head for Whoscall’s developer Gogolook, highlighted the significant increase during the year’s end. Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) Executive Director Undersecretary Alexander Ramos noted a shift in scam tactics during this period, particularly the rise of spoofing scams. In these schemes, scammers impersonate official SMS channels of telecommunications companies, e-wallets, digital banks, and other brands, sending messages that contain malicious links.
“The tone of these spoofing scam messages often creates a sense of urgency, claiming rewards will expire or passwords are about to become invalid,” Ramos explained. “These messages typically instruct recipients to click on a link to update their information. However, this link serves as a gateway for scammers to access victims’ digital banking or e-wallet accounts.”
Approximately 600,000 Filipinos fell victim to text scams in 2024, with the majority of cases reported in the fourth quarter, totaling 201,760 incidents. Ramos suggested that the increased financial needs during the holiday season may have made individuals more susceptible to such scams.
In response to the growing threat, the CICC has advised the public to exercise caution by not posting photos of personal identification documents, bank accounts, credit cards, and billing statements on social media or the internet. They also recommend consulting directly with bank managers for any account issues and refraining from sharing digital wallet or bank account details with strangers.
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has also been active in combating text scams. As of September 2023, the NTC reported receiving over 45,000 complaints related to scams, including reports of individuals receiving scam messages or having already provided money to scammers. NTC Commissioner Ella Blanca Lopez emphasized the importance of constant and close coordination among government agencies to combat the spread of text scams, noting that while SIM registration has helped, criminals continue to update their methods to commit fraud.
Telecommunications companies have taken measures to address the issue. For instance, Globe Telecom initiated filtering out all person-to-person SMS with clickable links within its network in September 2022. By the end of September 2023, Globe had blocked a total of 2.59 billion spam and scam messages, deactivated 4,733 SIMs, and blacklisted 150,287 numbers linked to SMS fraud.
Similarly, Smart Communications reported blocking nearly two billion malicious text messages from January to October 2024. The company also blacklisted almost a million numbers tied to scams and other fraudulent activities during that period. Smart continues to investigate the use of fake cell towers, which allow scammers to push messages directly to mobile users in a localized area, bypassing the telco network’s infrastructure.
The public is encouraged to report any received text scams to the NTC’s consumer hotline, 1682, to aid in the ongoing efforts against these fraudulent activities.
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