Tatay Rudy often receives messages and calls.

However, some of these are from unknown numbers with various offers or claims that he won prizes.

Meanwhile, Tristan received a message about a traffic violation.

The message even included a link claiming to show his violation.

Out of fear, he clicked it and ended up on a website.

But he quickly became suspicious when they asked for his bank details.

“I was surprised because I don’t even use my vehicle. I thought it was a scam. I just wish they would play fair. You know how hard life is in our country, right?” said Tristan Sagum, one of the victims of the text scam.

Tatay Rudy and Tristan are just part of the 67% of Filipinos who frequently receive text scams.

According to the study, over 33% of them were even convinced to click the link, and it looks legitimate.

However, according to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), this is extremely dangerous and alarming.

Each scam victim loses no less than 16,000 pesos.

Usually, victims are aged 18 to 24.

But how can we avoid this?

First, don’t trust messages from unknown sources right away.

Second, check if the bank’s website is legitimate before entering any information, this helps verify if a promotion is fake.

Third, never give out personal information like your name, cellphone number, address, email, and other sensitive details.

Lastly, don’t trust offers of prizes, especially if you haven’t entered any contest or if they ask for money to claim the prize.

Currently, there is a law that strengthens the fraud prevention system of banks, e-wallet providers, and payment services in the country under Republic Act No. 12010 or the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA), signed by President Marcos Jr. in July of this year.

Those proven to violate this could face penalties of 4 to 8 years of imprisonment and fines ranging from P50,000 to 10 million pesos.

**JOSE ROBERT INVENTOR