MANILA – The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) on Thursday warned the public about a new scam circulating through short message service (SMS) that can enter legitimate message threads for e-wallet services like Gcash and Maya.
In a statement, CICC Executive Director Alexander Ramos said such fraudulent messages usually contain links to a fake site that capture the account holders’ details, including one-time passwords and other personal details.
“We are seeing more and more scam text inserting itself into legitimate Gcash or Maya SMS,” Ramos said.
He said scam SMS can sneak messages into legitimate message threads by using a web portal or application.
He also called on the public to be more vigilant and never click links sent through text messages.
To help inform its users, Smart, Maya, and Gcash have sent messages to their customers to never open links sent by text even from them.
“Scammers are now using illegal cell towers to send texts that appear to be from trusted brands,” the advisory SMS from Maya read. (PNA)