To strengthen online scam prevention and awareness: Gogolook renews partnership with CICC

IN PHOTO: (Left) CICC Executive Director Usec. Alexander Ramos and (Right) Gogolook Philippines Country Head Mel Migriño during the partnership signing ceremony.

Gogolook, a global leader in TrustTech, has renewed its partnership with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), an agency under the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), to continue its efforts in online scam prevention and raise awareness.

Gogolook Philippines Country Head, Mel Migriño, explained that this initiative symbolizes Gogolook’s commitment, alongside the Philippine government, to strengthen the fight against online scams in the country.

“We want to express our gratitude to the CICC for allowing us to contribute in any way we can to help keep Filipinos safe online,” said Migriño.

“With this, Gogolook remains committed to sharing the data we collect through the Whoscall app with the CICC, using it as a foundation for more educational campaigns to raise public awareness about online scams,” she added.

In addition to data sharing, the agreement also includes joint anti-scam campaigns, as well as the provision of testing and lab facilities to process local Whoscall data – a global anti-scam application developed by Gogolook – which will support the CICC’s investigations.

Meanwhile, CICC Executive Director Usec. Alexander Ramos said that this renewed public-private partnership (PPP) is one of the ways the government is taking action to combat online scams in the country.

“The data they provide will serve as one of the key foundations for our future programs and, at times, a lead for investigations, potentially leading to the capture of online scammers or the dismantling of scam operations in the country,” Ramos said.

2024 Scam Report

Recently, Gogolook, in collaboration with CICC, reported a total of 6,157,517 Short Message Service (SMS) scams throughout 2024.

This data was gathered primarily through the Whoscall app’s reporting feature, where users can report suspicious scam numbers they encounter online.

The report revealed the following breakdown of scam calls in 2024: a 25.3 percent increase from the first to the second quarter; 22 percent growth from the second to the third quarter; and a 22.1 percent rise from the third to the fourth quarter. 

Overall, there was an 87 percent increase in scam calls for the entire year, from the first to the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, the growth in scam SMS reports showed a 12.7 percent increase from the first to the second quarter; 27.6 percent growth from the second to the third quarter; and a 26 percent rise from the third to the fourth quarter. 

In total, scam SMS reports increased by 82 percent over the entire year.