IN the recent past, text scammers would claim to be an OFW relative using their new roaming number and ask for prepaid load, or pretend to mis-send load credits and ask you to return them. While we still get our share of text scams from time to time, a lot of us already associate these messages with fraud and simply ignore them.

But as the use of e-wallets and online payment channels has become increasingly popular and indispensable, scams have evolved to be much more sophisticated. A common scam is done through phishing, wherein a fraudster gathers personal information like MPINs and OTPs, and uses this to gain access to accounts and steal the funds of the user.