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As Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) continues to thrive in the Philippines, various sectors become increasingly responsive to the needs of this industry. In fact, the education sector and the government are adopting measures to support Philippine outsourcing by developing initiatives and design curriculums meant to equip graduates with sufficient competencies essential for the continued success of the industry.

          A case in point is the creation of a talent working-group meant to offer insights on labor and employment market trends, issues and directions, and plays "applicants' advocate" role during the design and testing of talents. CHED, DepEd, TESDA, and the umbrella association of outsourcing firms in the country, BPA/P (Business Processing Association of the Philippines) spearhead the campaign in preparing students to be ready for possible employment once they graduate.

        Aside from these, there are also partnerships between companies and universities in the pursuit of modernizing the curriculum to be more industry relevant. One school in Makati is currently strengthening its use of the English language by transforming the call center English program into a required English conversation class. Another school responded by way of providing a call center elective to graduating students wherein those who pass are guaranteed with call center jobs after graduation.

The various government agencies and educational institutions initiated the said activities the moment they found out that graduates are actually not equipped enough for them to qualify for employment in BPOs. Research studies show that out of the 400,000 fresh college graduates every year, only a quarter are proficient in the command of the English language, and are eligible to work in call centers and various BPOs. There is a glaring discrepancy between the jobs the industry can provide and the pool of workforce produced every year by college institutions. The industry can provide 600,000 new jobs by 2010. This can never be filled up by the few qualified graduates at hand.

For the mean time, various efforts are being adopted in order to improve the employability of graduates. The outsourcing industry provides a remarkable number of opportunities. Therefore, it is worthwhile to know that the government and the concerned sectors are finding ways in order to meet the said demand. After all, those efforts are for the benefit of all; on the part of the firms who are seeking assistance, and on the side of a nation where unemployment remains a pressing issue.

38 people charged with Internet crime
are members of global organized crime,

says US investigator

US government charged 38 people with identity theft who were able to victimize as much as thousands of individuals from several countries. The 38 Internet criminals stole Social Security identification numbers, credit card data and other personal information that would give them access on the financial sources of the victims.

The said scam is actually part of the global crime ring based in Romania. People involved are 19 Romanians and the other half are coming from United States, Pakistan, Portugal and Canada. This means that the crime is not only local but global threat since it involves Internet.

"Criminals who exploit the power and convenience of the Internet do not recognize national borders; therefore our efforts to prevent their attacks cannot end at our borders either," thus said, Deputy Attorney General Mark R. Filip. He was the one who declared the crime charges against the 38 people at Bucharest (Southern Romania).

This online fraud is known as phishing. Phishing is done through sending emails from seemingly credible senders such as well-known bank institution or online payment processing service for online vendors and many others. Example is the PayPal which was used by the "phishers" as bait in the mid 2000 to allure the Internet users, specifically PayPal customers. The phishers used the capital letter 'I' (as India) instead of small letter 'l' (as in lima) so that "paypai.com" would textually look the same with paypal by having "paypaI.com." Phishers usually play on the textual aspect of a credible company website in deceiving the Internet users.

The content of the email message being sent by the phishers usually contains a link or links leading to a website of a credible online financial company website that is actually fake. The fake website contains online form that requires the visitor to fill in with their personal information, including sensitive data such as that on credit card information. This also takes in other method because the latter is easily detected and would likely drive fewer victims since people who are not smart enough or easily fooled in the Internet are getting extinct. Since there is a growing awareness of such fraud, phishers use Spyware instead. It is sent as an email attachment that automatically gathers the needed data to access personal financial accounts when clicked by the unheeding Internet user.

According to the anti-organized internet crime group, the only key to prevent one from being a prey is to be cautious on the messages flooding in the inbox. The more tempting the header sounds, the more likely that it comes from the phishers. Avoid bait to avoid getting "phished."