Security

Fintech Alliance.ph Urges the Public to Be on High Alert Due to Rising Cybercrimes

Members of Fintech Alliance.ph issued a joint statement strongly urging the public, industry stakeholders, and the government to join hands in fighting against fraudulent and criminal financial transactions online.

With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the digital shift in financial transactions and the technology becoming widely available for everyone, many unscrupulous groups and individuals are finding ways to target unsuspecting users.

According to global think tank Cybersecurity Ventures, the impact of cybercrime is expected to reach $ 6 trillion in 2021 and rise to $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.

In the Philippines, various cybercrime incidents have been reported throughout the pandemic. The Philippine National Police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group reported 869 online scams from March to September 2020.

This is higher by 37% compared to 633 in the same period in 2019. As the community quarantine and lockdowns continue amid the global pandemic, this number is expected to rise.

Some of the common online fraud schemes used by criminals include phishing or the use of emails that pose as from a credible institution in order to extract sensitive and private information that can be used to access one’s debit and credit cards, digital banking accounts, and other financial accounts.

Lito Villanueva

“While opportunities abound for technologies to advance our digital shift in the financial system, the same opportunities are currently being exploited to do harm on individuals and the to the economy as a whole.

Citizens should keep their guards up when it comes to online transactions and always check with relevant banks and institutions whenever they receive suspicious messages. This way, we can guard our own finances and in turn, ensure that our economy can better recover with less of the threat of cybercriminals hampering our recovery from the pandemic,”

said Fintech Alliance Philippines Founding Chairman Lito Villanueva. He is also the Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC).

Featured image credit: Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels