CITY OF SAN FERNANDO The Philippine Post Office (PHLPost) has warned the public against bogus phone calls where callers ask about financial transactions with the country's official mail courier.
In a public advisory released Wednesday, PHLPost said the scam involves persons claiming to be part of the post office.
The callers are using computer skills to configure calls and make it appear that these are legitimate calls from the agency’s Customer Service Hotline, (02) 8288-7678.
"The PHLPost will never call its clients for any financial transaction. This official number, however, is being used by the Post Office for the sole purpose of entertaining inbound calls from the mailing public who are tracing the whereabouts of their mail or parcels, It is never used for outgoing or outbound calls for verifications on senders or addressees of postal matters,” the advisory read.
The Post Office warns the public not to entertain bogus telephone calls by the scammer dubbed as “Mr. Vishing (voice phishing),” discovered after three PHLPost private clients recently inquired at the Cebu Post Office about the dubious phone calls which were confirmed to be “spoofed" or cloned to extort innocent citizens.
"The scheme is to trick potential victims into giving personal information and money by instilling fear in them. Based on the initial information gathered, the modus operandi began in November 2022, asking would-be victims for their personal information through text or online messaging and even by video calls," the PHLPost said.
"In the case of ‘Mr. Vishing’, the callers told the target recipients that they ‘had discovered an outbound mail or parcel containing illegal substances purportedly sent by the prospective victim through the postal service’. They the callers say that these parcels are bound to Malaysia, Thailand or any foreign country but were allegedly ‘shipped and intercepted at Cebu Central Post Office’ or at any post office would then refer them to a ‘local police’ who would then use their social engineering skills to instill fear on these victims for them to avoid ‘legal entanglements’. The victims are then duped or forced to pay large amounts of money for protection to avoid trial and possible imprisonment,” the Post Office said.
PHLPost disclosed it is now working closely with the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the National Telecommunications Commission and Philippine National Police to investigate the fraudulent scheme as well as its Telephone service provider to address the alleged scam.
“It is best and wise to check first the authenticity of the calls, emails, or texts that they receive from proper and legitimate sources or can access valuable information available online against vishing, phishing and other frauds,” the PHLPost said.