The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) has warned the public to be extra careful in doing their Christmas shopping online as the shopping scam rate in the country reached 35.9 percent, which is the highest among 11 Asian countries surveyed.

"Scammers take advantage of the high volume of online shopping and people's vulnerability during this period," CICC Executive Director Alexander K. Ramos said.

Based on the 2023 Asia Scam Report, released at the 1st Anti-Scam Asia Summit in Taiwan, Filipinos are vulnerable because they respond too quickly to scammers' demands (24.8%) and choose to take a risk despite uncertainty about the risk (21.1%). Other reasons for vulnerability include being enticed with incentives and over-trusting with friends and family members.

The report, which was published by GASA and Gogolook, was based on data collected from nearly 20,000 respondents across 11 countries in Asia, including the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia.

The CICC, an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), encourages victims to report scam incidents by calling 1326.