THE Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) has warned the public against scammers and fraudsters soliciting financial assistance in the purchase of eBay gift cards using a fake e-mail address of the agency’s executive director.
In an advisory issued on Thursday, the IACAT said the scammers behind the scheme were using the e-mail address “[email protected]” and made it appear that it belonged to Executive Director Jinky Dedumo.
The scheme employed by the fraudsters, according to IACAT, was similar to an earlier moneymaking scam that used a bogus false e-mail address—“[email protected]” to make it appear that it belongs to Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra.
The fake Guevarra e-mail account was being used to request assistance for the procurement of iTunes gift cards as donations to patients to hospice care units across the country, and subject to reimbursement.
The IACAT earlier said Secretary Guevarra only has one official e-mail address, “[email protected]” while Dedumo’s official e-mail accounts are [email protected] and [email protected].
“In the event that you receive a message fitting those descriptions, close the message immediately and report it as spam. However, some spam may occasionally get through to your inbox or be diverted to your Spam Folder, so please be cautious,” IACAT said.
The agency warned of possible legal action against those responsible for sending messages using fake e-mail addresses of the DOJ Secretary and Dedumo.
It reminded the public that phishing is a fraudulent process used by scammers to acquire sensitive information from users such as user names, passwords, and credit card details.
It added that, “email recipients are often deceived by phishing attempts since messages appear to be sent by legitimate and trustworthy sources. IACAT strongly advise the public to stay vigilant regarding such malicious online activities.”
The agency also urged the public to immediately report suspicious activities of the same nature to the nearest police station or call the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime hotline numbers for assistance.
Read full article on BusinessMirror
