Arms race against the no-face: How the Protect Your Money campaign could equip the masses against financial trickery

OPEN your mobile phone to check your SMS inbox, scroll to some messages sent through your trusted e-wallet or digital bank's line.

- By Matthew Miguel L. Castillo Researcher

Among these, find any message telling you of claimable winnings, redeemable points, and retractable transactions.

Look for a link included in the message, do not open it — inspect its content for any sly mistypes to resemble the website it is trying to emulate.

If no suspicion initially arose, you would probably open the link under normal circumstances, clueless that a scam attempt has already targeted you.

For a lot of Filipinos, this theoretical scenario had already been a grim and costly real-life experience, which sees more victims by the day.

Considering the widespread susceptibility to these emerging financial threats, the Financial Sector Forum (FSF) and the Consumer Protection and Education Committee (CPEC) decided it was high time to relaunch the Protect Your Money (PYM) campaign.

The PYM campaign is an awareness drive first launched in 2013 calling for Filipinos to be vigilant and proactive against financial schemes through offers in fraudulent investment activities and documents.

In an emailed response to BusinessWorld, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that the 2013 drive reminded the Filipino to protect his/her money by “knowing the bank, verifying it’s BSP license, and dealing with authorized employees or licensed agents only.”

The Financial Sector Forum renewed the campaign in June 2025 and adapted its information drives to more current financial threats.

“Today, deception wears a friendlier face, speaks your language online, and can reach your phone 24/7; this is why the PYM campaign needed to evolve,” the central bank said.

Police Colonel Jay D. Guillermo, chief of the Philippine National Police anti-cybercrime group of the cyber response unit, said that a person’s information is the primarily coveted among cyber criminals.