Philippines cybercrime agency warns of QR code scams before holiday spending season

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Philippines QR code scam warning

Highlights

Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center warns of increased quishing threats this Christmas, emphasizing scammers’ use of malicious QR codes for fraudulent payments and data theft.
Online scam cases in the Philippines dropped to 510 as of June, down from 1,060 year-over-year, but authorities warn cross-border scam syndicates remain difficult to apprehend.
IDfy and CIBI Information estimate the Philippines could lose up to P603 billion annually to scams involving money mule accounts, highlighting the escalating economic risk of AI-driven fraud.

Holiday scam risks and QR code threats

As reported by BusinessWorld Online, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, or CICC, says scams typically intensify during the Christmas season as consumers receive extra cash and become more exposed to offers presented as jobs, investments or personal appeals for money.

Robert S. Paguia, division chief and data protection officer at the CICC, says scammers are increasingly using quishing, a scheme that relies on malicious QR codes to send victims to fake websites, steal personal information or induce fraudulent payments. He says such codes can be distributed through emails, text messages and public posters, and may even be used to replace QR codes displayed by legitimate physical merchants.

Paguia urges consumers to verify the legitimacy of a transaction with merchants before completing payment. He also says scam operators are difficult to apprehend because their networks are organized across multiple countries and can move quickly while leaving few digital traces.

The Philippine National Police also warned about quishing in July after receiving several reports. It says online scam cases fell to 510 as of June, from 1,060 incidents in the same period a year earlier.

Victims are encouraged to report incidents through the CICC's 24/7 hotline at 1326 or by email at report.cicc.gov.ph.

AI-driven fraud adds pressure on businesses and consumers

Raghuraman Chandrasekhar, country head of IDfy Philippines, says both the number and variety of scams are increasing as crime groups adopt artificial intelligence to create new fraud tactics. He says AI is becoming a major tool for syndicates building different kinds of scams, adding to risks for consumers and financial institutions.

A joint white paper by IDfy and CIBI Information, Inc. says the Philippines risks losing as much as P603 billion a year to scams involving money mule accounts, equivalent to nearly 3% of gross domestic product. The estimate underscores the potential economic cost of digital fraud beyond direct consumer losses.

IDfy Philippines says it offers identity verification, digital onboarding and fraud-prevention tools to help businesses detect suspicious activity and reduce identity theft. One of its measures uses live facial verification for flagged transactions to check whether the person using an account matches the enrolled customer, a step aimed at limiting money mule activity.

The company says it works with more than 10 organizations in the Philippines, including major banks and ride-hailing platform Angkas, as financial services and digital platforms increase efforts to screen customers and protect payments during the holiday period.

In our earlier article on Philippine e-commerce payment trends, we noted that cash-on-delivery still makes up a sizable share of online purchases even as QR-code and bank-transfer payments surge. We also highlighted that merchants face rising pressure to offer more payment options to avoid checkout abandonment, while expectations of fraud risks are increasing as digital payments expand.

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