“I don’t think it’s the whole world that we’re looking at. What we notice is that when people are victims of love fraud, they are afraid (to file complaints),” Renato “Aboy” A. Paraiso, Executive Director of CICC, told reporters on the sidelines of the Google Safer Internet Day celebration.
“They are ashamed to report because everyone will know that they have been abused, that they have been deceived,” he added in Filipino.
The demographics of victims are “widespread,” as AI has allowed fraudsters to type in their target’s information, making attacks more targeted to different types of consumers, Mr. Paradise.
Complaints among the youth, who are considered tech-savvy, have also been reported, he added.
In its 2025 scam report released earlier this month, the CICC said it had lodged 123 romance scam complaints, 53 of which involved complainants aged 18 to 29 – the highest number of any age group.
The other plaintiffs are between the ages of 30 and 39 (38 plaintiffs) and 40 to 49 (18 plaintiffs).
It also reported that most of the dead were women, 63 cases, followed by 56 men, while four have not yet been identified.
The acting director-general encouraged victims and near-victims to call the CICC hotline 1326 to file complaints.
“Mag-report kayo sa amin para makapagasagawa kami ng mga intervention at ang iba and hindi and mabiktima,” [Report these incidents to us so we can carry out interventions and help prevent others from being scammed]he said.
Coinciding with the Month of Love, CICC earlier launched its campaign called “AI, AI-AI FEB-IBIG,” which is a lyric of a popular Filipino song, aimed at raising awareness of AI-driven love scams through various content posted on social media.
Meanwhile, global tech giant Google shared its latest security features aimed at protecting users from all online threats.
Among these is the use of Google Lens and the Circle to Search feature, introduced last December, to help users spot fake messages.
“Our AI analyzes messages and tells you in real time if it’s a scam or not. It’s like having a security expert looking over your shoulder,” said Mervin Teo V. Wenk, head of communications and public affairs at Google Philippines, during the launch.
Users can use this feature by simply taking a screenshot of a suspicious link or message and uploading it to Google Lens for scanning, or by long-pressing the home button on an Android device to enable the search circle option.
Google also shared its crime detection lock feature on Android devices, where the screen automatically locks if the device is detected as stolen.
The “About this photo” tool allows users to check the origin of an image, while Google’s SynthID technology can help users identify AI-generated or deep-sourced images.
These digital safety features underscore Google Philippines’ Safer Internet Day campaign this year, “Sa Internet, Ingat!” highlighting how AI can be a powerful tool for cyber security. – Edg Adrian A. Eva
