Cybercrime complaints to the CICC nearly doubled in 2025, to 18,633.

The headline numbers

CICC figures come from its year-end briefings of 31 January 2025 and 22 January 2026. BSP figures come from its 2025 Annual Report as carried on 10 August 2026. The three agencies count different things; the tiles say which.

Finding 1 — complaints rose 86%; the two loss totals are not comparable

The complaint counts are comparable: both years count complaints received by the same complaint centre, so the change between them is exact. The loss totals are not comparable and no change between them is shown. The 2025 figure covers four named categories; the 2024 figure was given for cybercrime victims generally, with no category scope stated.

Finding 2 — consumer fraud was about a third of complaints in both years

Consumer fraud — paying for goods or services that are not delivered, or answering a fake advertisement — was the largest category in 2024 and 2025. CICC reported it as about 35% of complaints in both years.

Finding 3 — two agencies, two counts that cannot be differenced

In January 2026 the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group reported substantially fewer recorded incidents across four selected scam categories, comparing 1 January – 4 December 2025 with the same period in 2024. Two weeks later the CICC reported full-year complaints up 86%. Both can be true. They count different events, over different windows, through different doors.

Finding 4 — the BSP numbers are a redress mechanism, not a scam count

The Bangko Sentral's Consumer Assistance Mechanism received more than 120,000 new complaints in 2025 about banks, e-money issuers and other supervised institutions. The total may include scams and other financial-consumer disputes; the published figure is not scam-only. These cases are not a subset of the CICC's and must not be added to them.

The full dataset

The underlying observations and principal derived measures behind this page, one per row, each with its period, its geography, how the source states its value, whether it is published or our own arithmetic, and the source it came from. The CSV carries the same rows with raw numeric values, ranges, the derivation inputs and the source URL in their own columns.

exact

An exact figure as published.

rounded

Published already rounded by the source.

lower-bound

Published as a floor ("more than", "over"), not a count.

approximate

Published as an approximation ("almost", "about").

range

Published as a range rather than a single value.

not-published

The source publishes no value for this measure.

What we could not establish

Nothing on this page is an estimate. Where a figure could not be sourced or could not be computed from aligned published data, it is suppressed and the reason is published here rather than filled in. Each item is on the list for the next update.

1. The BSP 2025 Annual Report itself. The published PDF returned HTTP 403 to automated retrieval on the access date, so every BSP figure here was read from the reporting carrier. Confirm against the report before citing a decimal.
2. The exact BSP 2025 complaint total. The report is quoted as "more than 120,000", which is why no share on this page uses it as a denominator.
3. The exact CICC 2024 loss figure and its category scope. "Almost ₱198 million" was attributed to cybercrime victims generally; CICC has never itemised it, which is why the 2024–2025 loss change is marked approximate.
4. The period covered by the PNP's 2024 comparator. The 2025 window is stated as 1 January – 4 December; the 2024 window is not stated, so the percentage changes may not be like-for-like.
5. A 2025 platform breakdown and a 2025 non-delivery share from CICC. Both exist for 2024 and neither has been published for 2025.
6. Downstream outcomes. Neither CICC nor the PNP publishes how many complaints became a filed case, reached a prosecutor, or ended in recovered money.

Method

Corrections

Every change to a published figure is recorded here with its date. Nothing is edited away silently.

1. 4 September 2026

   First published in a form that called the 18,633 figure "scam complaints", published an average loss per complaint, described consumer fraud as "exactly 35%", quantified a gap between CICC and PNP counts, and expressed the BSP mediation figures as percentages of 120,000 complaints. All five were wrong and have been corrected: the CICC figure counts cybercrime complaints of every kind; the average mixed a four-category loss total with an all-category complaint count and has been withdrawn; the shares are as-reported approximations; the CICC and PNP series count different things over different periods and are no longer differenced; and the BSP flows are now shown with their carryovers on their own base.

2. 4 September 2026 (second pass)

   Second correction pass. The BSP's 409 cases are renamed from "settled" to "successful mediations" throughout the page, chart, CSV and structured data: the BSP records a mediation as successful either when the parties sign a settlement agreement or when they agree the matter has been sufficiently clarified and mutually terminate the proceedings as successful, and it does not publish the split, so the earlier wording implied 409 settlements that are not evidenced. The derived "approximately +111%" change between the 2024 and 2025 loss totals is withdrawn — their category scopes are not comparable and the two totals are now shown independently with no trend, growth rate or difference between them. The unsupported claim that most BSP disputes are not scams is replaced with a statement that the total may include scams and other financial-consumer disputes and is not scam-only. The PNP comparison is now stated as 1 January – 4 December 2025 against the same period in 2024, on the Inquirer report of 6 January 2026 which states the comparator window. The Newsbytes.PH report carrying the platform loss breakdown is now a linked source in its own right rather than a URL inside a note. Every observation gained a value_qualifier, and the claim that nothing is estimated is replaced with a statement that no missing values are imputed and that approximations, ranges and lower bounds are explicitly labeled.

Sources

Each source is labelled with what it actually is. A news report is never a primary source here — it is the carrier of a figure an agency stated, and it is marked as one.

1. Primary document

   Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, 2025 Annual Report — Consumer Assistance Mechanism · 2026-08-10

   The published PDF could not be retrieved programmatically on the access date (HTTP 403). Every BSP figure on this page was read from the reporting carrier below and should be confirmed against the report itself before being cited to a decimal.

2. Official statement

   Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, Year-end briefing on 2025 cybercrime complaints · 2026-01-22

   Carried by GMA News Online, 2026-01-22

   CICC has not posted a document carrying these figures. The briefing is cited through the outlet that carried it.

3. Official statement

   Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, Statement on 2024 and 2023 cybercrime complaints and 2024 losses · 2025-01-31

   Carried by Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2025-01-31

   CICC has not posted a document carrying these figures. The statement is cited through the outlets that carried it; the platform loss breakdown was read from the Newsbytes.PH report listed separately below.

4. Official statement

   Philippine National Police, Anti-Cybercrime Group, Year-end figures on recorded cybercrime incidents, 1 January – 4 December 2025 against the same period in 2024 · 2026-01-06

   Carried by Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2026-01-06

   The Inquirer report states the comparison is against "the same period in 2024", which establishes the 2024 window as 1 January – 4 December 2024. A GMA News report of 7 January 2026 carries the same figures without stating the comparator period.

5. News report carrying an official figure

   Philstar, Consumer complaints flood central bank in 2025 — reporting the BSP 2025 Annual Report · 2026-08-10

   The carrier from which the BSP Consumer Assistance Mechanism figures on this page were read.

6. News report carrying an official figure

   Newsbytes.PH, GCash top e-wallet used by fraud victims in 2024, says CICC — reporting the CICC statement · 2025-01-31

   The carrier from which the 2024 platform loss breakdown was read.

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