Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Oscar Albayalde reminded the public Monday to be vigilant against online scams after an overseas Filipino worker lost a total of P600,000 through a pseudo online love matching date.

Albayalde said seven members of the syndicate were arrested in an entrapment operation in Quezon City.

During the press conference, he gave basic cybercrime prevention tips.

These are:

1.Always keep your social media accounts private;

2.Use a unique password in every online account;

3.Initiate a background investigation of a person social media account who is not known to you personally before befriending or accepting a friend request. This can be done by knowing how long the account existed, how many friends it has and does it have regular online activities;

4.Protect your computer system against intruders, by installing Anti-Virus and by activating your firewall;

5. Remember the phrase, “Too Good To Be True”

Albayalde said online scams become trends as a lot of people are into social media and pay through credit cards online.

"They do hacking here since millions of people were engage in social media, on (the) internet. Hacking is a serious thing, very profitable and hackers are hard to be arrest," he said.

Albayalde said the police can't control this kind of situation, especially as a lot of people engage online. He advises the public to report to the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group these incidents.

He told those who engage in online buying to just use the old banking system.

"What is really very important here is we do not engage with anybody that we don't know and don't befriend with strangers in social media. If someone asks for your bank account or credit card number that you don't trust enough, don't give it to them," he added. Ella Dionisio/DMS