THE Department of Information and Communication Technology’s attached agency Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) yesterday urged cybercrime victims to report incidents through a newly launched online channel, the Inter-Agency Response Center (I-ARC).
“We want people to report incidents of cybercrime to the I-ARC channels. We made sure that the Inter-Agency Response Center (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,” said Undersecretary Alexander Ramos, CICC executive director.
The I-ARC housed at the National Cybercrime Hub is a task force created to centralize the reporting of cybercrimes. It is composed of the CICC, the DICT, National Privacy Commission, and National Telecommunications Commission, with the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) and the National Bureau of Investigation Cybercrime Division as its enforcement arm.
Ramos who established the National Cybercrime Hub in BGC, Taguig City early this year, also welcomed the initiative of Scam Watch Pilipinas in making online scam reporting channels more accessible to Filipinos.
Filipinos can now report online scams with just one click using the mobile phone browser at www.scamwatchpilipinas.com with reporting features linked to the I-ARC.
The website provides a special button that can directly lead the user’s mobile phone to 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 is a private-sector-led national cybersecurity movement institutionalized by the CICC, DICT, NPC, and NTC in July as the national citizens arm to educate Filipinos nationwide against cyber fraud as part of the national scam watch movement initiative. — Myla Iglesias
