Filipinos can now report online scam with just one click using the mobile phone browser at www.scamwatchpilipinas.com as Scam Watch Pilipinas launched its website with reporting features linked to the Inter-Agency Response Center (I-ARC) operated by the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC).
The highlights of the main page of the Scam Watch Pilipinas website are special buttons that can directly lead the user’s mobile phone into calling the I-ARC Hotline 1326 and other numbers such as 0947-714-7105 (SMART), 0966-976-5971 (Globe), and 0991-481-4225 (DITO).
Another feature is the button that directly leads to the reporting chat interface of CICC using Facebook Messenger which is powered by an AI called Cyri.
Scam Watch Pilipinas co-founder and co-lead convenor Jocel de Guzman said that the movement is always finding new ways to make reporting online scam to the government more accessible and convenient for the public.
“We started promoting the I-ARC Hotline 1326 to create an awareness for Filipinos where and how to report online scam by leading them to the CICC’s I-ARC channels with our 1326 education campaign. The next step is to make reporting of cyber fraud for the people easy by simply going to our website using their mobile phones and report in just one click,” De Guzman said.
CICC Executive Director Undersecretary Alexander Ramos, who established the National Cybercrime Hub in BGC, Taguig early this year, welcomes the new initiative of Scam Watch Pilipinas in bringing the online scam reporting channels of the government more accessible to Filipinos.
“We want people to report incidents of cybercrime to the I-ARC channels. We made sure that the I-ARC, being operated by CICC, is fully equipped with enough manpower and the right technology to handle the complaints of online scam victims using our reporting channels,” Ramos revealed.
The I-ARC housed at the National Cybercrime Hub is a task force creating to centralize the reporting of cybercrime to the government which composed of CICC, Department of Information Communications Technology (DICT), National Privacy Commission (NPC), and National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) with the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) and the National Bureau of Investigation Cybercrime Division our its enforcement arm.
Scam Watch Pilipinas is a private-sector led national cybersecurity movement founded by Manila Bulletin and start-up reputation management brand Truth360 Inc. which was institutionalized by the CICC, DICT, NPC, and NTC in a covenant signing on July 14, 2023 as the national citizen arm to educate Filipinos nationwide against cyber fraud as part of the national scam watch movement initiative.
Follow the Facebook page of Scam Watch Pilipinas at www.facebook.com/scamwatchpilipinas.