Reporting Online Scams and Cybercrime

First Hour: Protect Your Money and Accounts

1. Call your bank or e-wallet using the hotline in its official app, website or on the back of your card. Report the unauthorized or fraudulent transaction and ask them to block your account or card and to hold the funds on the receiving account.
2. Change your passwords and PINs, starting with your email, banking and e-wallet apps. Turn on two-factor authentication (a second code each time you log in).
3. If you shared a one-time password (OTP), assume someone else can now get into the account, and tell the bank or e-wallet so.
4. If your phone or SIM was taken over, contact your telco to block or replace the SIM.

Under the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (Republic Act No. 12010, or RA 12010, approved 20 July 2024), banks and e-wallets may temporarily hold the money in a disputed transaction for up to 30 days and must verify it with the other institutions involved. That only helps if you report quickly.

Keep the Evidence

• Screenshots of the chats, posts, ads, emails or text messages, showing the sender's name, number or account and the date and time.
• The links (URLs) of fake sites or profiles. Copy them; do not click again.
• Transaction receipts and reference numbers, and the receiving account name and number.
• Your bank or e-wallet statements showing the transfers.
• The phone numbers that called or texted you.

Do not delete the conversation or block the scammer before you have saved everything. Write down what happened, in order, while you still remember. Investigators may ask you to sign a sworn statement, so having the timeline ready helps.

Where to Report

• CICC hotline 1326: the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center's Inter-Agency Response Center takes reports of investment, phishing, text, romance and other online scams, 24/7. It works with the PNP and NBI and can help with account recovery.
• PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG): go to its office or a regional anti-cybercrime unit, or use its online channels, to file a complaint for investigation.
• NBI Cybercrime Division: file a complaint at NBI headquarters or a regional cybercrime center. The NBI's charter lists no fee. Staff help you fill in the complaint sheet, and you sign a sworn statement.

For problems with a bank or e-wallet's response, you can also complain to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). For a fake online seller, see consumer complaints.

The Laws That Apply

• Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (RA 12010, 2024): punishes money muling (using, lending, selling or buying bank or e-wallet accounts to move scam money), social engineering (tricking people into giving up account details, for example by pretending to be a bank), and treats large or organized schemes as economic sabotage (a heavier crime). It makes banks and e-wallets protect accounts, and pay you back (restitution) if they fail to keep proper safeguards. The scammer does not have to be convicted first.
• SIM Registration Act (RA 11934, 2022): says every SIM must be registered to a real person, so numbers used in scams can be traced.
• Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (RA 10175): covers computer-related fraud, identity theft and other offenses committed through computers and the internet.

Never lend or sell your bank or e-wallet account to anyone. Under RA 12010 that can make you guilty of money muling.

If You Want to File a Case

The PNP or NBI will investigate and can file a criminal complaint with the prosecutor. You will be the complainant (the person who filed the complaint) and may need to attend hearings. To recover money in a separate civil case (a private case for money), or if the amount is small, see small claims. For help with a court case, the Public Attorney's Office (PAO) assists people who qualify.