Tips from DICT-7: How to protect yourself from online scams

By: Niña Mae C. Oliverio - Multimedia Reporter - CDN Digital | December 03,2023 - 03:37 PM

A photo of the businessman with a credit card by rupixen/Courtesy of rupixen via Unsplash

CEBU CITY, Philippines — With the Philippines having the highest shopping scam rate among 11 Asian countries, the director of the Department of Information and Communications Technology in Central Visayas (DICT-7) shared some advice or tips when doing online shopping.

Here are the tips to avoid being a victim of online scams:

Know the red the flags

DICT-7 Director Frederick Amores said that when visiting the online store, the buyer should check the product’s review. If the review is low or inconsistent, that means it is a red flag.

He added that when the product’s price would be too far from what it actually would be in the market, that could also be considered a red flag.

Don’t accept things you didn’t order

Amores shared that there would also be people who would raise their complaints to their office saying that they were notified about the things they did not order online.

“Then, they are asked to make a payment and it’s not good that they are not familiar with [it]. So, the solution is if you have a household help[er] or staff in your house, tell them not to accept those things that are not cleared by you as the owner,” he said.

Be cautious on pretentious people, validate

There are instances when there are people pretending to be someone else for their benefit.

“The common one that we get (from the complaints) is someone pretending to be you, will tell other people, ‘Hey, I need money,’” he said.

He added that until now, he would still be surprised that people would still get victimized by this. Hence, the best way to avoid this would be to validate.

People should validate if that person is a relative or someone you know.

“Kung pwede, e-in-person nimo (If it is possible you do it in person then do it, but) if it’s your aunt, if your cousin. Check [it]. Do not send whatever amount, unless you’re swimming in money that you don’t care [about].You validate if somebody borrows money from you, you validate that that is indeed the person that you’re sending the money to,” he said.

Be cautious of phishing

Phishing is commonly done by asking salient information about your bank account.

People should not be “too trusting” because there are other ways to validate.

“If it’s a bank issue, you can always check with your bank before giving information. So many banks have ads that [say] ‘the bank will never ask for your OTP, the bank will never ask for your passcode’ which is correct,” he said.

Therefore, if somebody asks for details related to your bank account, one should not believe it right away but proceed to the bank directly.