WITH the growing network of businesses on social media, one of the problems faced by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 7 is unregulated sellers on Facebook, where cases of online fraud are often found.
DTI 7 Director Asteria Caberte assured online buyers that they are beefing up their actions against these scams.
“This is the call of the day, so we have to level up our consumer protection because of the change that is ongoing in the trade sector. As we beef up online selling, we also need to do the same against scams and frauds. We have to be more focused and active on this,” she said.
With the theme, “Making Digital Marketplaces Fairer,” DTI teamed up with other government agencies like the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), Department of Agriculture (DA) and Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) to help consumers in the growing online market for this year’s Consumer Welfare Month.
Caberte said that they received reports of on social media and even in text messages.
“The first thing we ask is, is there a promo permit? If you received these text with deadlines on payments, start doubting. An offer that’s too good to be true? Start doubting,” she said.
Rosemay Quiñanola, chief of the Consumer Protection Division of the DTI-7, said that consumers can lodge their complaints at their welfare desk.
Quiñanola said that some of the common complaints they received were those of product warranties, short-changing and online fraud like bogus sellers and text promo scams.
NTC 7 legal office Alan Macaraya Jr. also warned consumers of various fraudulent acts sent by text.
Macaraya said that they are hoping for a future memorandum of agreement with social networking site of Facebook.
“So that we can streamline technicalities and have basic and simple control to regulate online usage to lessen scams and fake news,” he said.
For those with complaints on text scams, the public may contact the Customer Welfare and Protection Unit (CWPU) of the NTC 7.