Happy April Fools’!
If you commemorate this global day of pranking, you may have played a trick or two on a friend yesterday. But in Rappler’s case, we spent the Friday before doing the opposite: teaching people how to protect themselves against scams and fraud.
We piloted our first #ScamAlert public event on March 28 at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, together with our partners — Department of the Interior and Local Government-Laguna (DILG), University of the Philippines (UP) Los Baños’ College of Development Communication, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), and UP Internet Freedom Network.
The event, “#ScamAlert: Ang wais na Pilipino, hindi naloloko,” comprised of a morning public forum attended by over a hundred people, followed by three workshops in the afternoon.
One of my main takeaways was: Scams are the great equalizer. Everyone gets scammed, regardless of social status, educational attainment, or age.
There were many times when the forum became a confession. Everyone had a scam story to tell, including College of Development Communication Dean Dr. Edmund Centeno who spoke of how he and his siblings sought to protect their elderly mother from believing a scammer who claimed her son was in a car accident.
Even CICC cybercrime investigation director Rojun Hosillos, one of our speakers, confessed how data in his smartphone was recently breached. Hosillos has spent more than a decade cracking down on cybercrimes with the National Bureau of Investigation.
There was a heartbreaking story of how a female retiree was tricked into giving away P2 million, including her savings and money she had had to borrow, in a love scam. She believed she was paying for customs fees to allow for the release of her boyfriend’s cash and jewels. Turns out, that boyfriend was in cahoots with a scammer pretending to work in the Bureau of Customs.
Women make up the majority of love scam victims, says Director Hosillos.
What happened at our forum
We didn’t just talk about victimization. Our forum wanted to equip participants with knowledge and tools to prevent themselves and their communities from becoming victims.
During the public forum, Rappler’s head of digital services and disinformation lead researcher Gemma Mendoza gave an overview of disinformation trends and tactics in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, drawing on the journalism, fact-checking, and research of the Rappler team.
After her talk, Director Hosillos talked about the most common scams in Laguna and Luzon, how to spot red flags, and how to report to authorities (they have a 1326 hotline). It was the first time I had heard of task scams. According to Hosillos, a task scam is when a scammer promises easy money for completing simple online tasks (such as liking a YouTube page or downloading an app), but then asks you to deposit money so you can get paid for the work.
I then moderated a panel discussion with DILG Laguna Director Jay Beltran, UP Internet Freedom Network president Giancarlo Morrondoz, Gemma, and Director Hosillos.
You can watch the entire public forum here.
We took a lunch break and resumed with three hands-on workshops. CICC’s workshop had all the participants divided into smaller groups, each given with scam scenarios based on real cases handled by the CICC. Each group then presented their strategy on how they would hold accountable the scammer in their given scenario.
Rappler researcher Ailla dela Cruz, aka Teacher Rubilyn, gave a workshop on fact-checking, asking participants to identify what are the marks of disinformation on specific online posts, including videos and announcements about “aid distribution.”
Simultaneously, Gemma led a workshop on digital security, teaching participants how to strengthen the privacy settings of their social media accounts and how to keep their devices safe from hackers.
Here’s the main takeaway of senior citizen Rosie Morales, of Barangay Mayondon in Los Baños, from Gemma’s workshop: “Very informative po. Kasi katulad ko po, hindi ako mahilig mag-check sa mga setting-setting. Eh ‘di natutunan ko, ito lang ang puwede nating i-‘public.’ Ito, kailangan ‘only me’ ang makakakita. ‘Yong mga activities ko sa Facebook, friends lang ang puwede makakita,” she told me after the event.
(It was very informative. Because, like me, I am not used to checking the settings of my devices. Today I learned, only certain information should be made public. Other information should be visible only to me. Only my friends should see my activities on Facebook.)
If you want to listen to these workshops, we have free online modules in our RappLearn platform. Use your Rappler registration or app credentials to log in and access them for free.
It was heartening to see several senior citizens in the forum. What was even more inspiring was seeing Gen Z UPLB students join the elderly participants’ groups, help them understand the scam scenarios, and learn from them the perspectives and experiences of senior citizens.
This inter-generational exchange is something we hope to do in future #ScamAlert events. We want to bring in our core community of Gen Z and Millennial to reach out to elderly communities, and learn together.
With your support, we hope to expand #ScamAlert and bring it to other parts of the country. Let us know if you or your organization want to help!
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