IT is the season of festivities, fun, joy, and apparently scams.

This was warned by the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center who said that the “shopping scam rate” in the country had been slowly increasing and is now at 35.9 percent.

According to the CICC, this is the highest among 11 Asian countries surveyed.  

The CICC said this is based on the 2023 Asia Scam Report.

It stated that 24.8 percent of Filipino victims respond too quickly to scammers’ demands and 21.1 percent of  victims chose to take a risk despite uncertainty about the risk. 

Other  reasons  for  vulnerability  include  being enticed with incentives  and  over trusting with friends and family members. 

The report was based on data collected from  nearly 20,000 respondents across 11 countries in Asia including the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam , China and Indonesia.  

Shopping scam  was one of the nine mainstream scam scenarios and techniques  identified  in the Asian countries surveyed. Other scams included  identity theft, investment scam, government/bank scam, job scam, lottery scam , family/relatives scam, bill payment scam and charity scam. 

CICC Executive Director Alexander Ramos  appealed  to the public  to  be  careful when they do their  online shopping especially during the yuletide season. 

“Based on our observation, shopping scams usually increase during the Christmas season,” he said. 

“Scammers take advantage of the  high volume of online shopping and  people’s vulnerability  during this period,”  Ramos added. 

The mindset and immediate  response of Filipinos when confronted with scams makes them  vulnerable to fall into traps, according to Ramos.

CICC  is appealing  to the public to call 1326  if they are victims  of  shopping scams  and other cybercrimes.