Signaled by the carefree nature of online users as well as the rampant proliferation of malware, cases of cybercrimes have risen by as much as 152 percent in the National Capital Region (NCR) during the first half of the year, per the Philippine National Police (PNP).
The release of the statistics came with the launch of the Joint Ant-Bank Robbery and Cybercrime Coordinating Committee (JABRACCC) Second Quarter Meeting for 2023 which had taken place at the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) at the National Cybercrime Hub in Bonifacio Global City Taguig City.
The report reflects a recorded number of cases for cybercrimes of 6,250 from January to June 30, contrasting that of the recorded 2,477 during the same period from last year.
Drawing from the data, the majority of the cases come from online scams, which sees the previous number of 1,551 almost tripling to 4,446. Meanwhile, illicit access or hacking rose to 1,063 from 570—an 86 percent change during the same period from last year.
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While taking the least part in the reported cases, frauds involving automated teller machines (ATM) and credit cards also saw a dramatic rise of more than double, which saw a recorded number of 241 from the previous year growing up to 625 during the first semester of 2023.
Head of the PNP’s Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit (RACU)-NCR Jay D. Guillermo anticipated the continuing exponential growth of cybercrime in the region as people employ a careless attitude online in conjunction with the widespread availability of malware on the internet and technological development.
Meanwhile, the CICC’s IARC, which was established on December 27, 2022, concordant with the implementation of the SIM registration law, received 4,615 complaints from January 1 to June 15, 2023, per CICC Division Chief Engineer Norman Ancheta.