A regional anti-scam training programme has launched in the Philippines, which the ASEAN Foundation now counts among South-East Asia’s scam hotspots. Scam Ready ASEAN aims to teach three million people across the region to spot, avoid and respond to online fraud, with one million of them in the Philippines.
ASEAN Foundation executive director Piti Srisangnam said scam operations once clustered along the Cambodia-Thailand and Cambodia-Vietnam borders but spread after military operations there. Activity has also surfaced on the Myanmar border and in Timor-Leste. “It has not only happened in Cambodia anymore,” he told reporters. Citing the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, he said Filipinos lost an estimated P121.8 billion to scams over the past year, with digital wallets the main channel used to move the money.
The same report found that 84 per cent of Filipino adults faced at least one scam attempt in the previous 12 months, up from 77 per cent in 2025. Srisangnam said investment fraud, romance scams and schemes built on fear were among the most common tactics. The figures put pressure on banks, e-wallet providers and regulators, as more Filipinos move their savings and payments onto phones. With digital wallets named as the main channel for stolen funds, the companies that run them sit at the centre of the problem as well as any fix.
The Bank Marketing Association of the Philippines (BMAP) leads the local programme with the ASEAN Foundation and Google.org, working with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. BMAP programmes director Pewee Villanueva said the plan is to develop 2,000 master trainers who will carry the lessons into their communities and workplaces. The approach is designed to reach people who might never attend a bank seminar or read a regulator’s advisory. The programme will also release Scam Ready, an interactive game that teaches users to recognise fraud, with the localised version targeted for full release between December and January.
BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr. said that as digital finance becomes easier to access, it must also become safer. Deputy Governor Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said tackling scams requires action beyond awareness and called consumer protection a shared responsibility. Alongside the training, BMAP launched an industry campaign, “Ang Mahal ma-Scam, i-scamcheck.ph Mo Muna”, which urges people to verify information before clicking links, replying to messages, sending money or sharing personal details online.
