The government will use the Scam Watch Pilipinas Anti-Scam Quad Model as its national framework for educating Filipinos about scams, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said.

The move seeks to provide a unified framework for promoting anti-scam behavior and strengthening community participation in scam prevention.

In a statement on Tuesday, Aug. 18, DICT Secretary Henry Aguda said the government recognizes the value of adopting an existing framework built around public education and private-sector collaboration.

“Why reinvent the wheel? Let’s adopt it. If the program works, why shouldn’t we use it? It comes at no cost to the government, it benefits the public, and it is built on public-private partnership,” he stated.

According to Aguda, the Quad Model could also strengthen the Philippines’ role in regional efforts to combat scams.

“With the Anti-Scam Quad Model as our national education and awareness strategy, we can put the Philippines at the forefront of anti-scam education and awareness in Southeast Asia,” he said.

“We want Filipinos to be not only informed about scams but equipped with the right behavior and tools to prevent them,” he added.

The Scam Watch Pilipinas Anti-Scam Quad Model is built around four key components: behavioral change through the “Kontra-Scam Attitude,” a volunteer watcher program, cross-sector collaboration and technology-enabled reporting.

Also, the model has gained international recognition for Scam Watch Pilipinas. The advocacy was ranked Top 2 in the world in the Best Anti-Scam Campaign category of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance’s Scam Fighter Awards in 2025.

At the center of the model is the Kontra-Scam Attitude, which encourages Filipinos to adopt four behaviors when dealing with suspicious messages, calls and online offers: Magdamot, Magduda, Mang-isnab and Magsumbong sa 1326.

The second component focuses on mobilizing and training volunteer anti-scam advocates who can bring awareness directly to communities, schools, workplaces and vulnerable sectors.

The third pushes stronger coordination among government agencies, law enforcement, financial institutions, telecommunications companies, technology platforms, civil society groups and other stakeholders involved in scam prevention and consumer protection.

The fourth component promotes technology-enabled reporting to make it easier for the public to report suspicious activities and scam incidents through available digital channels and government reporting mechanisms.

Scam Watch Pilipinas co-founder Jocel de Guzman said the DICT commitment could move anti-scam education away from a largely reactive approach that focuses on warning the public whenever a new scam emerges.

“Scam prevention should not stop at telling people what the latest scam is. We need to build the right behavior so Filipinos instinctively know what to do when confronted by suspicious messages, calls or offers. I also thank Secretary Henry Aguda for recognizing the value of behavioral change in scam prevention and for seeing that fighting scams requires more than technology and enforcement,” De Guzman said.

He said adopting the Quad Model as the national anti-scam education and awareness strategy could provide government agencies, communities and private organizations with a common framework for sustained scam prevention efforts.

Scam Watch Pilipinas has been advocating a whole-of-society approach to fighting scams based on the view that the growing scale and sophistication of online fraud cannot be addressed by law enforcement alone.