MANILA - A cybersecurity expert on Wednesday warned of more "hyper realistic" and "hyper personalized" scams this 2024 as cybercriminals make use of artificial intelligence to achieve their plans.

Speaking at a forum, Scamwatch Pilipinas co-lead convenor Art Samaniego Jr. said that AI could make it easier for cybercriminals to process and weaponize the personal data they are able to mine from the internet or the dark web.

“Kasi dati pag nanakaw mo yung data, anong gagawin nila sa data na ‘to? Dahil sa AI, pwede na silang gumawa ng mga programs o mga solutions na makagawa sila ng hyper realistic na mga phishing attempts at phishing attacks,” he said.

“Dati, pag wrong grammar yung nagpadala sayo ng email, automatic na yan, scam yan. Ngayon dahil sa AI, ipapasok nila sa ChatGPT na gumawa sila ng letter tungkol sa taong ito na nandun na yung names niyo, data niyo, so hyperpersonalized. At kahit sino pwedeng maniwala dahil perfect na yung grammar, yung mga links mukhang totoo na,” added Samaniego.

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And since many Filipinos are on social media, Samaniego said scammers are likely to continue using such platforms to hook victims.

“Eto yung mga scams sa marketplace, mga scam na job offer na non-existent. So titindi ito, lalo pa nilang dadagdagan ang mga ito,” he said.

According to the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), which is under the Department of Information and Communications Technology, as of November 2023, it had already received around 13,000 complaints of various scams being facilitated in one popular social networking site alone.

The agency said it has been doing everything it can to track down these cybercriminals.

But it believes social media sites should also be made accountable for allowing their platforms to be a vehicle for fraudulent activities.

“They’re supposed to be self-regulating. Dapat nade-detect na nila yung IP nung person na nagre-register. Example, na-identify na scam ito— nawala, nag-appear (ulit na may) bagong name pero the IP is the same. All they have to do is just block that IP,” asserted CICC Executive Director Alexander Ramos.

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Ramos hopes this could be addressed with the newly-passed Internet Transactions Act of 2023.

“In other countries, they are being penalized. Dito sa Pilipinas hindi pa sila nape-penalize e. With our new law, I think they can be penalized dun,” he said.

Samaniego, meanwhile, shared ways on how individuals can also protect themselves from scammers and hackers such as setting up a two-factor authentication before logging into their digital accounts or by making use of a Virtual Private Network or VPN.

He also discouraged using public WIFI connections for sensitive transactions.

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