Manila: Online scams rank high on the list of crimes committed in cyberspace, the national police said while reiterating a warning to Filipinos to be wary of the information they post on social networking sites.
According to senior superintendent Edwin Roque, acting chief of the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG), they have received a total of 1,211 cybercrime-related complaints since 2013.
Online scams top the list with 366 cases in 2013, 2014 and 2015 while online libel is second with 240, online threats with 129, Identity theft with 127, and anti-photo and video voyeurism with 89.
In a bid to address offences committed in the internet and other electronic medium, the Philippines came up with its law against cybercrime in 2012. However, it was only in August this year that the Implementing Rules and Regulations for the measure was issued by the department of justice.
As for the online scam complaints, these were reported by the victims themselves.
According to Roque, the typical form of scams in cyberspace are online buying and selling, investment, pyramid schemes and other forms of online fraud.
Roque said with the increasing number of Filipinos going online, the risk of falling victims to cybercrime also rises.
Based on the Factbrowser, there were 44 million internet users in the Philippines in 2014 and the average time spent on the internet by users was 18.6 hours per week or 2.6 hours per day.
On August 12, the departments of justice, interior and the local government, and science and technology, signed the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the country’s Cybercrime Prevention Act.
According to De Lima, the signing of the rules and regulations on the Cybercrime Prevention Act “comes at the time when cybercrime is the emergent threat to the rule of law.”
“This represents the completion of the legal framework for a proactive approach to a secure cyberspace,” she said.
Earlier, there had been opposition from Filipino groups over the implementation of the Cybercrime Prevention Act as they fear that the law would infringe on their individual privacy among other concerns.
However these issues were resolved later on.
“Over a period of 17 months, the IRR went through a series of government and public consultations that included stakeholders from business, academe, non-governmental organisations, legal profession, media, ICT groups and internet service providers,” the justice department said.
Authorities have issued guidelines to Filipinos to avoid becoming victims of cybercrimes. Among these are ensuring that their privacy setting are placed on the most secure available and that they only provide information to known friends and not the internet at large.
