‘Napatawad ko na’: Scam victims move on and leave fraud cases hanging

Alyssa Arizabal

A scam case needs a victim, so what happens when the victim decides to put the whole ordeal behind them?

Naka-move on na po ako eh. Okay na po, napatawad ko na. (I’ve already moved one. It’s okay, I’ve forgiven them.)

It’s a prosecutor’s nightmare to hear those words from a scam victim.

Yet that’s exactly the predicament Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Cybercrime Assistant Director Chris Jark Ace Maño has faced, recalling how complainants would often lose interest just as prosecutors were ready to bring their scammers to court.

“If we’re to change one characteristic of Filipinos, it’s the ningas kugon mentality in the sense that when we try to file cases, report cases, we have to see it through,” Maño said at an anti-scam forum hosted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Monday, October 12.

He had a rather blunt reaction to those who suddenly had a change of heart. “Eh paano naman ‘yung [kaso?] Marupok nga (Then what happens now to the [case]? Too softhearted).“

It’s a problem investigators know all too well since pursuing fraud charges needs victims to help establish what happened and, in some cases, testify against the people who scammed them.

For instance, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Financial Intelligence Unit Chief Minerva Sobreviga-Retanal recounted how even successful raids of scam hubs didn’t always end with fraud charges against the perpetrators.

Sobreviga-Retanal cited one operation in which authorities shut down suspected scamming activities but ended up prosecuting the operators for qualified trafficking in persons instead.

“Technically, we need victims. If it’s a scam, there should be damage caused,” she told Rappler on the sidelines of the event. “When you prosecute, the court would require the damaged party to appear as witnesses.”

But persuading victims to come forward is not always easy. Some may be reluctant to disclose that they were deceived, while others do not want to commit to a lengthy investigation and court proceedings.

“It’s discouraging when you do the investigations because it’s evidence-based, and some would not like to be involved in that,” Sobreviga-Retanal said.

That doesn’t even consider the vast majority of victims that never report the crime in the first place. A 2026 survey by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) found that 15% of the 1,160 Filipino adults surveyed suffered financial losses from scams, but only 29% of those who lost money reported the incidents to authorities.

But Sobreviga-Retanal also warned victims against trying to play detective themselves, as this wastes precious time that authorities could use to trace funds and identify suspects. (READ: A failed scam attempt gave BPI a glimpse into how fraudsters take your money)

“Transfers are made in milliseconds because virtual assets are available, cryptocurrency is availabale, so it’s just a matter of time,” she said.

But with scammers becoming more and more sophisticated, experts warn that no one should consider themselves immune, especially younger, tech-savvy Filipinos who may assume that they are less likely to fall victim to fraud.

“Before it was the titos, titas, lolos, lolas (uncles, aunts, grandgathers, grandmothers) that were victims. Now, it’s the young,” Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) Executive Director Renato Paraiso said on Monday. “It’s rising — the numbers of victims of the Gen Zs, the Millennials, Gen Alphas. It’s because of overconfidence.”

Case in point: even Google Philippines country manager Prep Palacios admitted once losing P90,000 to an online seller who immediately disappeared after receiving her payment.

“I’m a tech executive, and I was still fooled,” she told the same forum. – Rappler.com