After receiving reports of unauthorized booking sites circulating online, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) on Thursday, July 8, urged the public to be more vigilant when it comes to booking for their coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing.
PRC reminded the public that http://book.redcross.org.ph and/or Dashlabs Shop are their “two legitimate booking platforms only.”
The PRC issued this warning so the public should beware of booking scams after getting reports of circulation of unauthorized booking sites of PRC targeting those flying in from abroad.
“The scamming scheme had several victims already,” PRC said.
According to reports gathered, PRC said that the scam involves collecting booking fees and will link the victims to the PRC e-CIF - tricking them into thinking that they will be able to jump the queue with PRC for testing and results.
PRC said that it already took the “necessary actions to shut down the said scam sites.”
Meanwhile, PRC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Senator Richard Gordon also reminded the public of this scamming scheme and warned those who are behind this.
“Huwag niyong samantalahin ang sitwasyon,marami na ang naghihirap dahil sa pandemya at huwag ng dagdagan ang problema ng inyong kapwa (Don’t take advantage of the situation because many people are already suffering because of the pandemic, don’t add up to the problems of your fellowmen),” Gordon said.
More tests needed
Meanwhile, Gordon noted that while the vaccination efforts of the government are ongoing, there is still a greater need to do more testing.
“Kailangan pa natin ng maraming bakuna (We need still need more vaccines),” Gordon said.
“Malaki pa ang kakulangan nito sa bansa at maging sa buong mundo kaya mahalaga pa rin ang pag-test laban sa COVID-19 nananatiling mahalagang bahagi ng paglaban natin sa virus na ito ang pagtetest upang maihiwalay mga positibo sa mga maaaring mahawaan nito (There is a shortage of vaccines in the country and in the rest of the world that is why getting tested remains an important part of our fight against COVID-19 because we need to separate those who will be tested positive from those who can get infected),” he added.
PRC remains the leading organization for the COVID-19 Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test in the country with already 3,441,780 tests done to date.