The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), an agency under the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), announced on Monday, Nov. 11, that it is investigating the possibility of an "organized breach" of certain e-wallet accounts, which led to unauthorized fund transfers over the weekend.

CICC Executive Director Alexander K. Ramos said that the agency shifted its focus from a system glitch to an organized breach when it began investigating the case involving popular actress “Pokwang” (Marietta Tan Subong, in real life).

“We are encouraging victims of this organized breach, including Pokwang, to come forward and explain what really happened to their accounts,” Ramos said.

Report scams to 1326, not on social media

Meanwhile, the CICC has reiterated its appeal to the public to report scams and all forms of cybercrimes to the Inter-Agency Response Center (IARC) hotline at 1326, rather than ranting on social media.

Ramos responded to the surge in complaints regarding unauthorized fund transfers over the weekend involving the e-wallet GCash.

“We encourage the public to report to CICC if they were affected by the recent e-wallet losses,” Ramos said. “We may be able to assist them if they call 1326, so they can be included in the investigation instead of posting their losses on social media,” he added.

Ramos stressed that “your social media platforms will not, in any way, assist you nor resolve your losses in your e-wallets.”

The CICC said it has been coordinating with GCash to understand what transpired and is collaborating closely with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on how victims can be assisted.

To date, the CICC reported that the IARC hotline has received 21 complaints regarding the unauthorized fund transfers over the weekend.

The IARC hotline 1326 is toll-free and operates round-the-clock, seven days a week, including holidays.

Fraudulent SMS creeps into legitimate message threads

The CICC also alerted the public to a new short message service (SMS) or text scam that allows fraudulent messages to infiltrate legitimate message threads, making it difficult for account holders to differentiate between legitimate services and scams.

Fraudulent messages usually contain links to fake sites that capture the account holders’ details, including the One-Time Password (OTP) and other personal information.

Ramos said his office has been receiving complaints related to this new text scam from GCash and Maya account holders.

“We are seeing more and more scam texts inserting themselves into legitimate GCash or Maya SMS,” Ramos said.

“We are appealing to the public to be more vigilant and never click links sent through text messages,” he explained. “We should always be suspicious when we receive such links through text messages,” he added.

CICC noted that scammers manage to sneak messages in bulk into legitimate threads through the use of a web portal or application.

To protect its customers against this new SMS scam, GCash, Smart, and Maya have been sending out advisories and reminders on potential scams through various platforms.

“Fighting cybercrime begins with every individual,” Ramos said. “The government cannot do it alone. We need the support of everyone in the community,” he added.