DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 24 March) – Victims of online scams could fall victim a second time as fake pages offering services to recover the money they lost are spreading rapidly on Facebook.
MindaNews monitored multiple Facebook pages presenting themselves as anti-cybercrime groups or scam recovery services.
MindaNews fact-checked these pages as they appear legitimate and could victimize more users online.
While the platform enforces community guidelines against fraud and phishing, persistent moderation challenges – both algorithmic and human– allow these schemes to thrive, especially in vulnerable Philippine communities.
These pages typically offer assistance to individuals who have lost money to any kind of online fraud. Some claim they can trace scammers, recover stolen funds, or connect victims to authorities who can help solve cybercrime cases. The pages appear as ads on the dashboards and recur somehow, because these were Sponsored Posts, a paid product of Meta.
The modus is also known as “recovery room scams” according to the United States-based Federal Trade Commission.
In the Philippines, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) issued a warning on June 25, 2025 regarding online scam schemes circulating on social media.
The CICC is a Philippine government agency attached to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and is responsible for enforcing the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
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