MANILA – The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) alerted international travelers to the Philippines on Monday of a “malicious website” that provides reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) by the PCG upon arrival in the Philippines for a charge.
PCG Task Force Bayanihan Returning Overseas Filipinos (TF-BROF) Commander, RADM Rolando Punzalan Jr. said in an advisory that the website https://www.philippinesvisa.com, which redirects to https://www.philippinese-cif.com/ to complete an electronic case investigation form (e-CIF), is “false” and not authorized by the PCG.
“All concerned are enjoined to be vigilant and not fall into the said unauthorized claim,” Punzalan said.
Those who desire to report an issue linked to the website or have questions should contact the PCG TF BROF via mobile and Viber at +63915-088-5276.
“Said Task Force works with the Department of Transportation – Philippines (DOTr)’s One-Stop-Shop for the Management of Returning Overseas Filipinos (OSS-MROF),” Punzalan said.
The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) warned the public against “booking scams” for Covid-19 testing on July 7, noting that only http://book.redcross.org.ph is the only legitimate booking website from the PRC and Dashlabs Shop.
It stated that these fraud sites had duped people into paying to expedite their e-CIF testing and processing, and that the public should only visit official sites such as the PRC’s website at https://redcross.org.ph/ to prevent these scams.
