UnionBank’s Chief Information Security Officer, Joey Rufo, is advocating for public awareness and promoting the ‘Don’t Click The Link’ initiative in order to combat phishing attacks during the holiday season. The bank has joined the #HolidayWatchPH anti-scam awareness campaign, in collaboration with Scam Watch Pilipinas and the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), to warn customers about the 12 Scams of Christmas.
Rufo emphasized the importance of not clicking on links in messages received from untrusted sources, as many online frauds to watch out for this holiday season are phishing scams. The #HolidayWatchPH campaign aims to educate Filipinos on the most common online scams perpetrated by cybercriminals during Christmas, including fake shipping notifications, online charity scams, and fake shopping websites, among others.
UnionBank’s collaboration with Scam Watch Pilipinas and CICC expands the reach of their cybersecurity awareness program, Cybersure. The bank was also the first company in the Philippines to advocate for the ‘Don’t Click The Link’ initiative in 2021, prior to the release of Memorandum Circulars from the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). In March 2022, the BSP issued a memorandum mandating banks to remove clickable links in emails and SMS sent to retail customers and to conduct regular customer education campaigns against online scams and phishing schemes.
