What is Social Engineering?

Social engineering is the art of manipulating people so they give up confidential information. Rather than using technical hacking, scammers trick their victims by exploiting trust, fear, urgency, or curiosity.

In the Philippines, social engineering attacks often come through SMS, phone calls, social media messages, and even in-person interactions. Scammers may pretend to be bank employees, government officials, or delivery services to gain your trust.

Common tactics include creating a sense of urgency ("Your account will be locked!"), offering too-good-to-be-true rewards ("You won a prize!"), and impersonating authority figures ("This is the NBI, you have a pending case").

Protect yourself by never sharing personal information with unsolicited callers, verifying identities through official channels, and remembering that legitimate organizations will never ask for your OTP, PIN, or password over the phone.