The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) held a virtual press briefing on May 20, Tuesday, to coordinate and work with the Philippine government after a foreign-based content creator exposed a Cebu-based scam hub by posting a YouTube video, which became viral.
In the video, white hacker mrwn infiltrated an investment scam hub call center in Cebu wherein he hacked and took over the PCs, laptops, and CCTV cameras of the call center in the course of over a year.
Mrwn gathered evidence such as documents, workstation screenshots and screen recordings, call recordings, and CCTV footage of the operation.
After contacting multiple Philippine law enforcement agencies via email to present evidence, mrwn got a response only from the Department of Justice Office of Cybercrime (DOJ-OOC) which advised him to file a formal complaint before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) and submit a notarized affidavit.
Not being located in the Philippines which made carrying out the DOJ-OOC’s advice difficult, mrwn decided to confront the scam hub operators directly.
On May 6, 2025, he started chatting and calling the call center agents and their manager, sending them screenshots from CCTV cameras in the room.
He then revealed how much he knew about their operations. The call center agents immediately left their workstations, dispersed, and the next day, the call center went offline.
Mrwn then uploaded the video of his exploits to YouTube titled “Scammers PANIC After Getting Hacked Live On CCTV! on May 18, where he hoped it would reach the Philippine authorities and that they take action.
DICT assistant secretary Renato “Aboy” Paraiso considered mrwn’s experience contacting the Philippine authorities as “a challenge”, and that “for and on behalf of DICT Secretary Henry Aguda”, they “reject the notion that Philippine government does not act in the face of adversity.”
Paraiso then invited the content creators such as mrwn, Pierogi, Jim Browning, Kitboga, Trilogy Media, and Danny de Hek to collaborate with the agency.
Paraiso stated that the content creators can directly contact the DICT as partners in stopping scam hubs and illegal activities through https://dict.gov.ph and the CICC at https://cicc.gov.ph.
He also said the agencies, along with other Philippine government partners, would make sure that whatever investigations and findings these advocates have would be entertained and that the government will take action and prosecute scammers.
Paraiso characterized this as “Digital Bayanihan” (spirit of communal unity), which takes a whole-of-society approach. He then stated that the government welcomes partnership with private individuals, civic groups, ethical hackers, and white hats who share the same goal on stopping cybercrime.
Paraiso also encouraged advocates to give the DICT leads and let the agency know, and that these partners can be confident that the agency will act upon these and that there will be results.
When asked about a framework for a legal shield for white hat and ethical hackers, Paraiso said that they would be looking at not just a framework, but also the policy to back it up.
On the proliferation of task scams on messaging apps, Paraiso mentioned that the threat monitoring center put up by the CICC wil now become a full-time operation to help combat scams and illegal recruitment after its deployment during the 2025 midterm elections.
“Please don’t lose faith in our government. We are your partners in putting a stop to these scam hubs. We don’t want them to hurt anyone in the Philippines, or anywhere outside the Philippines, or anywhere in the world,” Paraiso said.
“Be confident in the fact that you can share your information with us, we would investigate, and we would do something about it. We share your aspirations that we put a stop to these scam hubs, make the people behind these scam hubs accountable, to apprehend them, and prosecute them.”
