University of Perpetual Help System-DALTA

Calamba Campus
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY

IDENTITY THEFT CASES IN CALAMBA CITY

LAGUNA: PREVENTION AND INVESTIGATION

An Undergraduate Thesis Presented To

The Faculty of the College of Criminology
University of Perpetual Help
System- DALTA
Brgy. Paciano Rizal,
Calamba City
Laguna

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Bachelor
of Science in
Criminology

By
Darias,Renz Paolo B.
Gabarda,Edmundo A.
Guevarra,John Noel E.

Prof. April Joy Manaig

Thesis Adviser
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Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

Problem and Its Background

Nowadays Identity theft has been a big problem in the whole world and also in

our country. This is the one of the worst cases of cybercrime and this is due to the

increase in the use of electronic transactions like virtual payment card, bank transfer,

digital wallet mobile pay, etc. When people use several types of electronic

transactions, their personal identities are revealed and it can be seen by people with

knowledge of hacking it is easy for hackers to use different identities to defraud and

get money from the people they stole information.

Today, the Internet is the fastest expanding infrastructure in everyday life. Due

to these growing technologies, we cannot effectively protect our confidential

information, and as a result, Identity theft is becoming more prevalent daily. Some

commercial transactions are conducted through online; therefore, this industry needed

an elevated level of security for the most reliable and transparent transactions. It is

crucial for any country's security and economic well-being to improve cyber security

and safeguard valuable information infrastructures.

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The best way to prevent identity theft is always check and secure your

personal information, Monitor Your Credit Reports, Bank and Credit Accounts and

Ask Questions Before You Share Your Information and this way being victim of

identity theft can be avoided.

Although we already have knowledge on how to avoid identity theft, but it is

still not enough because there are so many people who know how to hack and gather

various information, usually they are individual graduates in information technology.

In the Philippines there are some identity theft cases which have been reported Our

government should pay more attention for this kind of cybercrime, and they

desperately needed to upgrade the security every individual.

According to a survey by data analytics firm Fico, 4.5% of adult Filipinos

claim to have encountered identity theft while 6% or around 6.7 million individuals

believe that their identity was used to open financial accounts fraudulently. The

growing number of identity frauds could lead to financial losses, Fico said. The report

found financial institutions’ authorized push payment APP where scammers trick

users into sending them money as one of the emerging frauds in the country.
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AP

P fraud is becoming a bigger problem in the Philippines as we see a boom in the use

of real-time payments, said CK Leo, Fico lead for fraud, security, and financial crime

in the Asia-Pacific. Fraudsters are attracted to these frauds as the victim's bypass

checks by authorizing the payments themselves, with the funds clearing instantly and

laundered through a maze of accounts,” Leo added. Meanwhile, two in five Filipinos

consider fraud and fraud protection as top priority when opening banks and other

financial accounts.

With around 57 million banking customers in the Philippines, if 40 percent of

consumers are filtering financial providers to find those with the strongest fraud

protection, that’s a market of more than 23 million, Leo said. This is a significant

opportunity and shows that good fraud protection can be a bank’s biggest sales asset

rather than just an overhead, he added. However, considering more consumer

protection including identity checks set by banks, 28% of users reduced or stopped the

use of credit cards.

In this light the researchers decided to conduct this study, to help investigate

and gather information to avoid being victim of identity theft, may our research helps

to educate and prevent people from harm and cybercriminals who initiated identity

theft.
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Background of the Study

Identity theft used to be a violent crime. The original identity thieves actually

killed their victims before stealing their identities. The criminal would just grab the

victim's name, social security number, and other personal data once the corpse had

been properly disposed of. The motivation was typically more about gaining a new

identity than it was about making money. Each situation was unique, thus it was hard

to draw any conclusions. Possible explanations include being in debt to Al Capone

and his associates, needing to flee, and seeking a fresh start in California using false

yet real papers.

Although it would be an extreme method of starting over, it makes sense

when you take into account the society of the time. In a sense, the victim's physical

persona was assumed by the offender.

Theoretical Framework

This study systematically tests a formal theory of how certain dimensions of

social stratification-income, race, and age-relate to risk of predatory criminal

victimization. An opportunity theory of criminal victimization is proposed. focusing

on the mediating role played by five risk factors: exposure, guardianship, proximity to

potential offenders, attractiveness of potential targets, and definitional properties of

specific crimes themselves. Propositions are derived pertaining to the bivariate and

multivariate-partial (main) effects expected from the theory and tested in analyses
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based on

a representative sample of the U.S. population for the crimes of assault, burglary, and

personal larceny. These data indicate that the relationship between the dimensions of

social stratification and the offenses studied here is complex, and that, other things

being equal, those usually thought to be most vulnerable economically and socially

the poor, the nonwhite, the old-are not the most likely victims of crime. Race has little

direct effect on victimization risk, while age is inversely related to each type of crime

at both the bivariate and multivariate levels of analyses. The findings are largely

consistent with the proposed theory.

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Conceptual Framework

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Data from
respondents

*Identity theft
investigation cases Proposed enhanced
in calamba city Data analysis preventive to avoid
laguna identity theft in the
Data Gathering community

*Identity theft
prevention and
safety program

Figure 1.

Research Paradigm

The structure and concepts of phenomenological research can be better

understood by looking at this graphic presentation, which shows an example study.

The researchers take the identity theft cases in calamba city laguna prevention and

investigation to collect some information from the victim of identity theft and to share

our gathered information into other individuals that helps them to prevent identity

theft.
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Statement of the problem

This study will be conducted to investigate and prevent identity theft in calamba

city laguna.

Central Questions:

What is the essence of preventive and investigation of identity theft in calamba

city laguna

Corollary Question:

1. How do participants describe their experience in prevention and investigation

of identity theft cases in calamba city laguna

2. What are the reasons of offenders in engaging in Identitytheft

perceived by the police officers

3. What are the emerging themes from the testimonies of the participants?

Significance of the Study

The University Admissions Application System will serve as a reference for

improving the Bachelor of Criminology Curriculum. For criminology students, the

results of this study will be of great help in improving the teaching and learning

process of criminology education. They can identify aspects of criminology that can

be added to the curriculum. A true researcher can apply what he learns from the

results of this study, and he can apply this knowledge when he joins the police force.

This will bring new knowledge to future researchers and will be an important
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breakthrough in further research in this field. However, the study would also be

advantageous to individuals learning by enhancing their expertise in preventing

cybercrime through peer-mediated education.

The profesors. The result of this study will offer teachers who do not have

enough knowledge in identity theft, they can share this to their students.

This will also help our people to have enough knowledge on preventing being a

victim of identity theft

Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study will focus on reducing cybercrime and strengthening cyber security.

The primary subject of this research study will consist of the random College Student

of University of Perpetual Help System Dalta Calamba Campus.

We will randomly ask the college students Student of University Of Perpetual

Help System Dalta Calamba Campus. if they have encountered a lack of security that

caused cyber-crime treat to them.

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Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined conceptually and operationally as

used in this study, which follows:

Identity theft. occurs when someone uses another person's personal identifying

information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their

permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. The term identity theft was coined in

1964.

Cybercriminals. A cybercrime is a crime that involves a computer or a computer

network. The computer may have been used in committing the crime, or it may be the

target. Cybercrime may harm someone's security or finances.

Hacker. is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical

knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system

by non-standard means

Fraud. wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.

Prevention. the action of stopping something from happening or arising.

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CHAPTER II

Review of Related Literature

This chapter presents the related literature and studies which are relevant to

the current undertaking. The reference material includes professional literature,

written, unpublished and published by educational researchers.

Foreign Literature

Nowadays there are many cases of identitytheft and cyber criminals are taking

advantage of the low rate of cyber security. Additionally, the new, emerging technologies'

lack of security and privacy as well as their users' ignorance present a serious threat to our

personal lives. Online scams are one of the most common identitythet issues.

According to (Yu, 2012). Every year, digital piracy accounts for worldwide financial

losses in billions. In terms of fear of online scam, Roberts and her colleagues (2013) found

that Internet exposure predicts fear of online identity theft, but their study did not include any

of the major predictors, namely “perceived risk”, “perceived seriousness”, and “victimization

experience”.

Besides, identity theft is only one aspect of online fraud, which means more work is

certainly needed to understand fear of online scam. Tounsi and Rais (2018) provides an

overview of the open source/free threat intelligence tools and compare their features with

those from AlliaCERT TI.2 Their analysis found that the fast sharing of threat intelligence

(i.e., Fernández Vázquez et al., 2012; Jasper, 2017), as encouraged by any organization in

order to cooperate, is not enough to avoid targeted attacks. 66 Furthermore, if Tounsi et al.
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focus on

what is the best way to keep the trust among organizations and at the same time share

information about cyber threats, in Toch et al. (2018) the authors place the accent on the type

of data required from those cybersecurity systems that are supposed to protect our privacy

from prying eyes.

The Kaspersky company gives guidelines (Kaspersky Lab daily, 2018) on how to

address incident response to contain a cybersecurity attack. Kaspersky listed some key-points

necessary for a company to avoid and contain attacks: (i) the speed, rapid remediation is a key

To limiting the costs, (ii) proactive protection, (iii) presence of internal specialists.

However, to have a worldwide overview of real-time cyber-attacks, Kaspersky provided the

Cyber threat Real-Time Map available here https://cybermap.kaspersky.com/ where it is

possible to see the current cyberattacks around the globe.

In (Symantec Employee, 2018), a Symantec employee gives a picture of cybersecurity

threats and their impact on the American population. Mobile malware and third-party app

stores seem to be a new concern. If, until 2017, spyware, ransomware, and viruses were

focusing mainly on laptop and desktop PC, after 2017, has been recognized an evolution of

malware attacks for mobile and an increment of 54%. According to the Symantec report, in

2023, cybercriminals will be able to steal something like 33 billion records that might include

names, addresses, credit card information, or Social Security numbers. The impact of this

identity theft will impact 60 millioon Americans, and the average costs have been estimated at

$3.86 million (U.S. dollars) for the companies worldwide and $7.91 million (U.S. dollars) for

the U.S. company.

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While many types of cybercrime require a high degree of organization and

specialization, there is insufficient empirical evidence to ascertain if cybercrime is now

dominated by organized crime groups and what form or structure such groups may take

(Lusthaus, 2013).

A study by Javelin Strategy & Research found that about 1 in 20 people nationwide

were affected by identity fraud in 2019. Losses rose to a total of $16.9 billion, up 13% from

2018.

Scammers take advantage of any opportunity they can, including the COVID--19 crisis, and

frequent data breaches mean your information may already be exposed. In this new reality, it

is smart to take steps to prevent malicious actors from using your personal information and

ruining your financial life.

Local literature

According to the Philippines National Police (PNP), cyber-crimes increased sharply in

2010 and it is rising every year in this country. Criminal Investigation and Detection Group

(CIDG) revealed that the Philippine police reported 4,673 cyber-crimes last year while there

were only 527 cybercriminal cases reported in 2006, a three-fold increase in a year. As per the

police, a total of 2,624 cases were reported between 2005 and 2010. In 2004, only 37 cases

were reported, And they kept surging every year with fifty-six cases in 2004 and 161 cases in

2005. In the span of two years, from 2004 to 2006, the PNP investigated 195 computer

crimes, in which cases on various subjects like credit and debit card fraud, Internet

pornography, violation of copyright laws, and other computer related crimes were noticed. In

the Philippines, 87% of Filipino Internet users have been victims of cybercrimes–DOJ, the

primer quoted a 2010 report of the security software firm Symantec that as many as 87
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percent of

Filipino internet users (nearly nine out of 10) were identified as victims of crimes and

malicious activities committed online. These included being victimized in activities such as

malware (virus and Trojan) invasion; online or phishing scams; sexual predation; and services

in social networking site like Facebook and Twitter.

The Department of Justice categorizes computer crime (cybercrime) in three ways: 1.

The computer as the target- attacking the computers (viruses). 2. The computer as a weapon

to commit (traditional crime). 3. The computer as an accessory- to store illegal or stolen

information.

The National Bureau of Investigation Dagupan District Office (NBI-DADO) has

warned the public against online identity theft as the agency recorded a spike in cases.

In an interview Thursday, NBI-DADO special investigator Roberto Gonzales said their office

has been recording 12 to 30 online identity theft cases per month since the coronavirus

outbreak in March, from just five to 10 cases prior to the pandemic.

The agency advised the public not to post sensitive information online to keep predators at

bay. Gonzales said they should inform social media friends and contacts of which accounts

someone has legitimate control of. Victims of online identity theft and similar crimes can file

complaints, the NBI added. Gonzales said criminals, scammers, and swindlers have spread

throughout the social media as the pandemic forced many Filipinos to be active in the use of

the internet.

Scammers using identity theft and estafa were arrested in a police operation conducted by

Cabuyao City Police Station operatives. The operation was launched in Brgy. Banlic,
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Cabuyao

City, Laguna early on September 1 after the victim and witnesses with barangay officials

sought assistance from the police. Jazer Del Mundo y Maitim, 21, single, a resident of No.

178 Purok 2, Brgy. Banlic, Cabuyao City, Laguna, was arrested while his cohort was able to

evade arrest. He was later identified as one Neil Patrick Magas alias ‘Potpot’, also of Brgy.

Banlic. The suspects connived in hacking the Facebook account of the victim, a freelancer

identified as Andrew Capacete y Sescia, 30 , residing at Brgy. Marinig, Cabuyao City,

Laguna. After successfully assuming the identity of the victim, the suspects contacted the FB

friends of the victim through Messenger and asked them for money, and several responded

and sent different amounts through GCash.Capacete and his friend, Estephanie Jonem, who

also served as a witness, contacted the GCash account owner and the barangay officials of

Brgy. Banlic. They were able to accost Millen Milares, whom the suspect Del Mundo asked

to collect the money from the GCash Encashment Store. Later on, Milares, who turned

witness, revealed the identity of Del Mundo to the victim and to the police, which led to Del

Mundo’s arrest. A case for Violation of Section 4a and 4b of Republic Act No. 10175 or

Illegal Access and Computer-Related Identity Theft is being prepared before the City

Prosecutors Office of Cabuyao City against Del Mundo. PRO CALABARZON Acting

Regional Director, Police Brigadier General Jose Melencio C. Nartatez Jr. warned the public

to be on alert for this modus operandi.

The PNP-Anti Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) has arrested a 44-year-old man for

credit card fraud and identity theft. Gabriel Mackay was caught red-handed accepting the

delivery of a credit card replacement in his residence in Recto, Manila earlier Thursday.The

suspect's modus is to call the credit card company, pretend to be a legitimate card holder and

ask for a replacement card to be delivered to his address.

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On

July 20, 2022 at around 12:10 PM, operatives of the Eastern District Anti-Cybercrime Team

(EDACT) arrested a male suspect from Mandaluyong City for using stolen credentials of

innocent victims to commit an online scam. The suspect, identified as Christian O. Sanchez,

Jr., posted on Facebook Marketplace the sale of an IPhone 7 mobile phone for Three

Thousand Nine Hundred Pesos (Php3,900.00). The victim sent a message to the suspect about

his interest to buy the said phone They closed a deal wherein the phone will be shipped via

Lalamove courier. The suspect demanded to pay half of the amount of the phone to push

through with their transaction. Further, as proof that the transaction was legit, the suspect

asked the victim to send two valid identification cards with a “selfie” while holding the said

IDs. When the payment has been made and the IDs were sent, the suspect blocked the victim.

Prior to the arrest, the victim was surprised to learn that his identity and pictures were

already circulating online, and had been tagged as a “scammer” on Facebook Marketplace.

This prompted him to report the matter to EDACT who immediately launched an entrapment

operation after engaging the suspect who was still offering the sale of various gadgets online

using the victim’s stolen identity. The suspect was arrested at the instance of withdrawing the

payment from the victim through a remittance center. Seized from the possessions of the

suspect are: a) three pieces of Php1,000.00 and Php200.00 bills as boodle money; b) one unit

of Oppo A5s mobile phone; and c) one identification card. The suspect will be facing charges

for violation of Section 4 (b) 3 (Computer-related Identity Theft) of RA No. 10175

(Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012).

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A 27-year-old assistant computer programming instructor was arrested by the Philippine

National Police (PNP) Quezon City Anti-Cybercrime Team (QCDACT) for identity

theft.Recognized by QCDACT officer-in-charge Police Lt. Michael Bernardo is the suspect

John Carlo Jimenez Mamuyac, who was complained by a popular tiktoker.Mamuyac was

caught in the act while withdrawing money at a remittance center in Pandi, Bulacan on

Saturday afternoon Based on the complaint of the victim who has not been named for the time

being, the suspect created a fake Facebook account using the victim's photos taken on social

media, and used it to offer sexual services to its clients.To confirm the suspect's activity, the

victim created a dummy account and pretended to be a client, and sent money to pay for the

service offered by the suspect through a money remittance center.The suspect is currently in

the Quezon City Custodial Facility facing a charge of violation of Sec. 4b and 3 of R.A.

10175 or Computer Related Identity Theft. The ACG urged others who were cheated by the

suspect to file a complaint against the suspect.

On August 20, 2022 in Parañaque City, operatives of the National Bureau of

Investigation (NBI) arrested Mark Jasper C. Reyes a.k.a. Mark Gil Cloma De Guzman, a

native of Cauayan City, Isabela, who has been misrepresenting himself as Atty. Jed Sherwin

G. Uy, Deputy Clerk of Court and Chief Technology Officer of the Supreme Court, and using

his alleged connections in the government in exchange for money. The NBI SAU set the

entrapment operation which led to the arrest of the suspect. The NBI has already charged

Reyes for estafa, computer-related Identity Theft, multiple counts of Computer-related

Forgery, violation of Anti-Alias Law, and Usurpation of Authority before the Office of the

City Prosecutor in Parañaque. The arrest spawned from the complaints of the real Atty. Uy

and Christine Chung dela Rosa. In her complaint, Dela Rosa claimed that on August 8, 2022,
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Reyes contacted her through Facebook and posed as Atty. Uy. She said that Reyes discussed

issues concerning a decision of the Court of Appeals in a case involving her late father and

bragged about his government connections. Upon learning that Dela Rosa is the

President/CEO of the Dela Rosa Construction and Development Corporation, Reyes allegedly

offered to help facilitate accreditation for her firm in exchange for P450,000.00. She

eventually confirmed that the real Atty. Uy is a different person and, on August 18, went to

the NBI Special Action Unit (SAU) to file a formal criminal complaint. Atty. Uy, who heads

the Management Information Systems Office of the SC, personally appeared before the NBI

SAU to execute an affidavit to deny any involvement and to clear his name. He also informed

SAU that the suspect is similarly engaged in other fraudulent activities victimizing a lawyer-

doctor and a Mayor in Palawan and in Lamitan, Basilan.In a statement by Supreme Court

Spokesperson Atty. Brian Hosaka, he said: “We are grateful to the NBI for their swift action

which led to the arrest of the alleged impostor. The Supreme Court treats all allegations of

malfeasance seriously, and will cause an immediate investigation of any purported illegal

activities in the Judiciary. We also encourage the public to report to us any purported

misconduct or wrongdoing by a judge, court official, or employee in order for us to

investigate the matter immediately.

According to the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (2019), the number of computer-related

identity theft cases from 23 incidents in 2013 increased to 258 incidents in January to June

2019, bringing 1,263 cases over six years, making computer-related identity theft one of

the favorites of Cybercriminals. This, combined with the mainstreaming of social media,

makes R.A. 10175 much more critical. They did, however, question the law’s

constitutionality in Jose Disini, Jr., et al. vs. the Secretary of Justice, et al., G.R. No. 203335.
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In itsruling, the Supreme Court claimed that R.A. 10175 is legal and lawful, adding that the

statute clearly defines the actions that would constitute identity fraud as a felony Social media

has, in reality, become commonplace over time. According to a study conducted by Sanchez

(2020), the Philippines alone had 74 million users in 2019, and it retained 93 percent of the

country’s social media market share in 2020. The top social media networking sites or

applications used by Filipinos included YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.

In light of this, it is easy to see why identity theft is becoming more of a problem, mainly

as social media’s popularity and user base grows. According to the PNP-ACG, computer-

related identity theft is a serious crime punishable by up to 12 years in prison. Identity theft

has long been a problem, with many reports focusing on the conventional nature of the

problem. However, only a few studies have focused on social media (Poster, 2013).

As previously stated, the government and social networking companies are aggressively

battling cybercrime, especially identity theft, as Argote (2020) claims that COVID-19 has

increased the number of users of social networking sites, implying that a flood of

information has occurred, and individuals are exposed to online dangers. Between January 1,

2020, and April 26, 2021, there were 64,128 cases of identity fraud in the United States. This

is mainly due to online purchases, travel reservations, and other credit card transactions.

the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), online identity fraud cases increased to 651,000

in 2019 and 1.4 million in the wake of COVID-19. This demonstrates how critical the

problem of online identity theft victimization is and how everyone should be aware of the

threats and dangers it poses, and how it can affect their personal lives.
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According to previous studies, age and gender are multivariate variables in identity

theft victimization on social media. Other variables, such as the number of different social

media accounts owned, the frequency of online purchases, the degree of privacy of the social

media user, the practices of social media users in securing their account, and the practices of

social media providers in securing their account, all lead to identity theft victimization on

social media. On the other hand, previous research has not focused on the social media

provider’s side of account security. As a result, this research aims to determine and address

what social media providers can do to safeguard and secure their users from identity theft.

Furthermore, previous studies were restricted by the number of respondents; thus, this

research aims to achieve a larger respondent scale to compensate for earlier studies’

limitations.

a study by (Holtfreter et al., 2015), the elderly, especially those between the ages of 60

and 70, are more likely to be victims of identity theft than those younger, accounting for 47

percent of victims of cybercrime. In addition, from 2005 to 2016, the percentage of adults in

the United States who use social media rose from 5% to 69 percent (Poster, 2013). However,

the same study found that most of the respondents were young adults. Children were just as

vulnerable to identity fraud as adults due to a lack of experience with social media and a lack

of awareness of how personal information security functions.

A suspect for access device fraud and identity theft was arrested by operatives of the

PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) in an entrapment operation at Square St., Pacita 1,

Phase 1d Subd., Pacita Complex, San Pedro, Laguna on December 13, 2019.
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The team led by PLTCOL MARY IVY SALAZAR, Officer-in-Charge, Cyber Financial

Crime Unit, ACG apprehended Joel Drilon Mahing a.k.a. “KC/Mommy KC”, Filipino, male,

41 years old, sales agent, a native of Mintal, Davao City and presently residing at Block 22,

Lot 5, Waling-Waling St., San Pedro, Laguna 4023 after receiving a credit card in another

person’s name with delivery address at Blk.5, Lot 17, Square St. Pacita 1, Phase 1d Subd.,

Pacita Complex, San Pedro, Laguna at around 11:00 AM of the same day.

Seized from the suspect’s possession was an unopened envelope from the issuing bank

enclosing a credit card addressed to the victim and Delivery Receipt.

The operation stemmed from the complaint filed by a representative of a well-known

banking company about a suspicious phone call received by one of their customer service

representatives (CSR) last December 6, 2019. Based on the report, a certain caller assumed to

be a card holder (later identified as Mahing) requested updating of their credit card contact

information and billing address as well as issuance of a new card to them.

Accordingly, cases for violation of Sections 3 (d) and 9 (e) and (k) of Republic Act No. 8484

(Access Devices Regulation Act of 1998); Commonwealth Act No. 142 (An Act to Regulate

the Use of Aliases); Article 178 (Using Fictitious Name and Concealing True Name) in

relation to Section 6 of Republic Act No. 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012) and

Section 4(b)(3) “Computer-Related Identity Theft” are being prepared for filing against the

suspect who is presently in custody of the PNP ACG.

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Chapter III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter defines the research methods, design, population, locale,

instrument, sampling technique, and the statistical treatment of data that are used to
conduct the study.

Research Design

This study adopts a qualitative method, non experimental research with a

phenomenological perspective, and a transcendental design. Transcendental phenomenology

is based on the principles identified by Husserl (1931) and was translated into a qualitative

method by Moustakas (1994).

Moustakas’s (1994) transcendental or psychological phenomenology is focused on the

interpretations of the researcher and more on a description of the experiences of participants.

In addition, Husserl’s concept of epochs (or bracketing) is emphasized. The researcher

employs this design to learn more about the issue as well as the experiences of the people who

will be participating in it.

Likewise, in the qualitative approach, one of the key elements of collecting data in

this way is to observe participants’ behaviors during their engagement in activities.

Researchers record information from interviews by making handwritten notes, audiotaping, or

by videotaping. (Creswell, 2014). Gathered data will be summarized to analyze the

phenomenon being studied.

In this study, the researcher will use this design which was truly appropriate since she

would like to explore the topic as well as the experiences of the participants that will be

involved in this study.

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Selection Criteria and Participants

For this research study, a set of ten (10) Police officers who are from PNP

Calamba City will serve as the participants of the study. The participants for the study

will be chosen using criterion-based sampling (Anjum et al. 2018). The number of

participants was carefully considered for data saturation, wherein the interview will

continue until no new information is presented. The study's participants will be

limited to PNP police officers in Calamba City who handles cases related to identity

theft.

Research Instruments

The researcher designs an in-depth interview schedule for the data collection

instrument of this study. This will be the researcher’s made instrument,

Which will be validated by three research experts-preferably with grammarian,

qualitative research expert, and school’s research expert. The interview questions are

aimed at eliciting relevant information concerning the participants’ lived experiences

as police officers responsible for apprehending Identity theft Suspects.

The content of the questionnaires will grasp and guide the participants to

emerge relevant and effective themes from their experiences. The questionnaire will
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have six

(6) prepared items using structured questions varying from their personal experiences,

observation, recommendation, and identifies strengths and rooms for improvements.

These questionnaires encompass trustworthiness, credibility, transferability,

dependability, and confirmability.

The guide questions for the in-depth interview will be divided into three main

parts including introduction, body, and conclusion.

Research Procedure

The research procedure for this study follows that of Moustakas’ (1994) which

starts with identifying a phenomenon to study, bracketing out one’s experiences, and

collecting data from several persons who have experienced the phenomenon. The

researcher then analyzes the data to identify significant statements or quote and

combines the statements into themes. Then, the researcher provides a list of various

experiences of the persons (what participants experienced), a structural description of

their experiences (how they experienced it in terms of the conditions, situations, or

context), and a description that explains the overall essence of the experience.

Data are to be collected from the participants who have experienced the

phenomenon through in-depth multiple interviews with them. Polkinghorne

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(1989) recommends that researchers interview from 5 to 25 individuals who have all

experienced the phenomenon. In this study, there will be ten (10) individuals who will

serve as participants. Other forms of data such as observations related to the

phenomenon will also be collected. The interviews can be in the form of taped

conversations or formally written responses. However, in this present study,

interviews will be done via personal interview and we will recording their Statement .

The questions will be tweaked to fit the flow of the discussion.

Data collection centers around two broad, general questions: What have you

experienced in terms of the phenomenon? What contexts or situations have typically

influenced or affected your experiences of the phenomenon? Other open-ended

questions may also be asked based on the situation. But, the question on what and

how to focus attention on gathering data that will lead to a list of experiences

(including their description) and a structural description of the experiences, and

ultimately provide an understanding of the common experiences of the participants.

The essential themes will be summarized at the end of each interview.

Additional feedback and opinions will be incorporated if needed. Each interview is

expected to last for about 30–40 minutes. The audio recordings will later be

transcribed, but the participants' personal identities will not be included.

A pilot interview will be done to strengthen the credibility of the data

collection process (Forero, et al. 2018). For data gathering and analysis, a stage-by-

stage approach will be used. The participants are recruited in the first stage, and the
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style and time of the interview will be determined. The researcher will discuss

the goal of the interview in the second phase in order to create rapport with the

participants. The interview will be conducted in the third step.

To establish the credibility of this paper, triangulation will be used. In

qualitative research, triangulation refers to the use of various methods or data sources

to build a thorough understanding of phenomena (Patton, 1999). Triangulation has

also been seen as a qualitative research approach for determining validity by

combining data from several sources.

Triangulation will be accomplished in this study by in-depth interviews with

participants, focus-group discussions (to corroborate the comments made during the

interview), observation, and a review of related literature.

The participants will be presented with or asked structured questions that will

elicit their own experiences during the in-depth interview. The variation of probing

questions will be determined by the replies or information that participants are willing

to share. These details will be supplied to them later and verified using an FGD

process. They will be questioned again if they confirm or deny their reaction or

assessment of the stated interview outcomes or results. Finally, relevant literature and

research will be used to verify the accuracy of earlier data or findings, which will be

supplemented by observation.
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Treatment of Qualitative Data

The first step in data analysis is to go over the interview transcripts and

identify the key comments, words, or quotes that provide insight into how the

participants felt about the phenomenon. Horizontalization is the term for this process.

The next step is to turn these key statements into themes by forming clusters of

meaning. After then, the themes are used to produce a description of what the

participants went through. Then there's the creative or imaginative variation or

structural description, which is derived from the cluster of data developed for the

theme and describes the context or setting that influenced how the participants viewed

the phenomena.

The researcher then composes a composite description that depicts the

phenomenon's "essence," known as the essential, invariant structure, based on the

structural descriptions. The essence is drawn mostly from the individuals' shared

experiences. It means that there is an underlying structure to all experiences.

After following the phases of analyzing data, the outcome of the study will be

presented to the key informants/participants for the validation of their responses. The

researcher will seek assistance from the experts (internal and external validators) for

the legitimacy of the themes used by the researcher anchored to the responses of the

key informant.

To acquire a better understanding of the participant’s experiences with the

online teaching process, Braun, and Clarke's (2006) six-step theme analysis technique
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will be

used. The thematic analysis began soon after the previous interviews are completed.

The data will be transcribed line by line and read at least twice in the first stage to

ensure familiarity. In addition, a reflective log was

kept. MS Word was used to code the data in the second stage. To strengthen

the legitimacy of the coding procedure, each transcribed interview is coded by two

researchers (investigators triangulation). In addition, an expert in the field evaluated

the coded transcripts (10 percent of the data) to eliminate researcher biases and

reflexivity.

Similar codes will be collected in the third stage, and initial themes and mind

maps were constructed using inductive thematic analysis (Thomas 2006). The themes

were validated against the coded extracts in the fourth stage to establish a consistent

pattern of themes with distinct distinctions. A thematic map was independently

produced by a colleague researcher who was blind to literature. After much

deliberation, the thematic map was finalized (Gani et al. 2020).

Peer debriefing meetings will be held in the fifth stage. To assure the

reliability of the findings, the final write-up will be created while considering logical

rationalities and direct statements from the participants. All of these stages ensure the

research's credibility, consistency, dependability, and transferability (Nowell et al.

2017).
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In a nutshell, the data from the in-depth interview will be subjected to

phenomenological reduction, which will result in horizontalization and the

transcription of significant expressions. The experiences will then be reduced to

invariant elements, which will be clustered into core themes using thematic clustering.

Following the creation of key themes, the invariant elements will be validated by

comparing multiple data sources. Individual structural descriptions are then created,

which are then combined to form individual composite structural descriptions.

Finally, the texture and structure will be combined to create an expression that

encapsulates the core of the phenomenon's lived experiences.

Methods of Validation

Guba (1991) suggested that there are correlates to the positivist paradigms of

inquiry that establish credibility in naturalistic inquiry. Validity strategies in

qualitative research are procedures (e.g., member checking, triangulating data

sources) that qualitative researchers use to demonstrate the accuracy of the findings

and convince readers of this accuracy. Guba’s four major categories, credibility,
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transferability, dependability, and confirmability are the most common ways to

understand the means of establishing validity.

Credibility according to Terrell, (2016) can be done through: prolonged

engagement, persistent observation, triangulation, peer-debriefers, negative case

analysis and referential adequacy. In this study, credibility is established using

prolonged engagement, triangulation, and peer-debriefing. Through prolonged

engagement, the research spent hours going over the transcripts that gives broad

timeline. Also, persistent observation contributed to prolonged engagement as it gives

depth and quantity of observations. Enough sample size is also part of this argument.

Persistent observation gives more interactions and richer understanding of the data

because variances are more accounted for.

To further established credibility in this study is by conducting triangulation or

the three sources of data. This is established through multiple sites, multiple

researchers or multiple forms of data like data from the literature. In this undertaking,

triangulation is done through checking data with other sources of information like

literature and conducting Focus-Group Discussion.

Another means of establishing credibility in this study is through peer

debriefing. This is done by allowing colleagues look into the data, verify

interpretations and offer other interpretations. In this current study, peer debriefing

meetings will be held in the fifth stage where the final write-up will be created while

considering logical rationalities and direct statements from the participants. Members
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checking gives importance to the voice. It is the process of understanding the subjects

correctly and interpreting their voice accurately.

Transferability indicates whether the meanings interpreted from those findings

are similar to the experiences of others. The means to establish transferability is to

describe the situation being observed.

In this current endeavor, the researcher will try to give thicker and richer

descriptions of not only the phenomenon but also the context of the phenomenon.

The following are some of the considerations by the researchers in conducting

the study: the number of organizations taking part in the study and where they are

based; any restrictions in the type of people who contributed data; the number of the

participants involved in the fieldwork; the data collection methods that were

employed; the number and length of the data collection sessions; and the time period

over which the data was collected.

On the other hand, dependability is established using a reflective appraisal of

the project or as Terrell (2016) recommended, an external auditor of the project. In

this case, a colleague researcher who is blind to literature will produce a thematic

map.

Finally, confirmability is the facet of trustworthiness that centers upon the

objectivity of the researcher. In this study, confirmability is established by having

another qualitative researcher audit the result of the thematic analysis.

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Ethical Considerations

This study will utilize co-researchers, the consideration of this study is

necessary for ensuring the privacy as well as the security of the co-researchers. These

issues will be identified in advance to prevent future problems that could have arisen

during the research process. Among the significant issues that are considered included

confidentiality, privacy and anonymity, and acknowledgments of works

The integrity of the research will be ensured. After describing the goal of the

study to the participants by text and e-mail, the participants are expected to give their

written informed permission. The identities of the participants were kept private, and

verbal agreement is obtained prior to recording.

Another ethical consideration in this study is giving due credits to the sources

of data by citing them properly and ensuring that correct and proper citations are

done.
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