Philippines among hotspots of scam operations
The Philippines has become one of the hotspots for scam operations in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN Foundation executive director Piti Srisangnam said.
The Philippines ranks among ASEAN's most active regions for scam operations, according to Piti Srisangnam, executive director of the ASEAN Foundation. Once limited to borders between Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, such scams now also occur in the Philippines, Myanmar and Timor-Leste, Srisangnam reported. According to a Global Anti-Scam Alliance study, Filipinos lost about P121.8 billion to scams last year, with digital wallets being the main channel for money transfers to fraudsters.
Eighty-four percent of Filipino adults faced at least one scam attempt in the past year, a rise from 77 percent in 2025. Scammers typically employ investment fraud, romance scams and fear-based schemes. To combat this growing issue, the Scam Ready ASEAN program initiated in the Philippines aims to train three million individuals to recognize, avoid and respond to online scams.
This initiative, led by the Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines (BMAP) in collaboration with the ASEAN Foundation and Google.org, will reach one million beneficiaries in the Philippines and develop 2,000 Master Trainers to spread awareness and prevention lessons. The program also introduces the Scam Ready game, an interactive tool to help users identify fraudulent schemes and make safer online decisions.
BSP Deputy Governor Bernadette Romulo-Puyat emphasized that combating scams requires collective action and building stronger safeguards for Filipinos' savings and trust in their financial system.
Written by urgent.news from Philippine Star Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
