Scam Watch Pilipinas calls for citizen-centered digital safety at Google.org Impact Summit APAC in New Delhi

• IN PHOTO: Scam Watch Pilipinas Co-Founder Jocel de Guzman during the Google.org Impact Summit Asia Pacific.

Scam Watch Pilipinas called for a decisive shift toward citizen-centered digital safety during the roundtable discussion “Building a Scam-Resilient Digital Future in APAC” at the Google.org Impact Summit Asia Pacific held recently in New Delhi, India.

Opening the roundtable discussion, Scam Watch Pilipinas Co-Founder Jocel de Guzman said that while organizations continue to strengthen cybersecurity systems, equal attention must now be directed toward educating people who are increasingly the primary targets of fraud.

“Across sectors, we invest millions in cybersecurity. We protect servers, secure networks, and harden systems. That is very important. But we have neglected something equally critical. We have neglected the digital safety of the people those systems are intended to protect,” de Guzman said. “Cybersecurity protects infrastructure. Digital safety protects citizens. Today, it is the user, not the server, that is under attack,” De Guzman added, stressing that resilience must extend to the last mile or consumers.

In January 2026, the World Economic Forum (WEF) identified cyber-enabled fraud as one of the most pervasive global risks, with 73 percent of surveyed leaders reporting personal or organizational impact. Now surpassing ransomware, fraud and phishing rank among top CEO concerns, driven by geopolitical tensions, AI-powered social engineering, and vulnerabilities across increasingly complex supply chains.

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WEF flags online scams overtaking ransomware as one of leading risk for businesses in 2026

De Guzman noted that governments and private sector leaders often call for a Whole of Society approach to fight scams, yet many institutions have not implemented a Whole of Organization approach within their own structures.

“Before we can achieve a Whole of Society approach, we must first embrace a Whole of Organization approach. Digital safety cannot remain confined to a single department. CISOs cannot carry it alone. Communications cannot do it alone. Compliance cannot do it alone. Protecting people from scams must become part of organizational culture, integrated into leadership priorities, employee onboarding, customer journeys, product design, and community engagement so that digital safety is built in, not bolted on,” De Guzman said.

Rowan Barnett, Director of Google.org for APAC, EMEA and Global Stronger Communities, invited Scam Watch Pilipinas to open the roundtable discussion, citing interest in its strategic framework for a systemic approach to tackling scams and its national strategy designed to bridge the last mile in protecting vulnerable communities.

Joining the roundtable were Ming Tan of the Tech for Good Institute; Jyoti Vadhera of the Centre for Social Research India; Jess Wilson of Good Things Foundation; Piti Srisangnam of the ASEAN Foundation; Syed Nazakat of DataLEADS; Anthea Mulakala of The Asia Foundation; Caroline Louveaux of Mastercard; Ee Min Lau of Google.org; Vineet Kumar of the CyberPeace Foundation; Brian Cute of the Global Cyber Alliance; and Julian Gorman of GSMA.

Critical in protecting the last mile, de Guzman presented the Philippine Anti-Scam Quad Model developed by Scam Watch Pilipinas. The model combines behavioral change, community-based education, cross-sector collaboration, and tech-enabled reporting into an integrated resilience framework.

“The Philippine Anti-Scam Quad Model promotes everyday protective habits through the Kontra Scam Attitude, mobilizes communities as multipliers of digital safety, aligns government, private sector, civil society, and media for coordinated action, and strengthens accessible reporting channels such as the 1326 National Anti-Scam Hotline and digital platforms such as the Whoscall Anti-Scam app by Gogolook to transform citizen vigilance into actionable intelligence,” he said.

He added that the framework recognizes that if one pillar weakens, the entire system weakens. Without behavioral change, users remain vulnerable. Without community engagement, knowledge does not scale. Without collaboration, responses become fragmented. Without reporting, intelligence collapses.

(The Scam Watch Pilipinas and TechWatch PH are both powered by Truth360 Inc.)