Filipino mobile phone users lost “millions of dollars” due to scam text messages that recently contained the names of recipients, a top official of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) said.
CICC Deputy Executive Director Mary Rose Magsaysay said that foreign and local syndicates are behind the proliferation of spam text messages, GMA News reported.
“It’s a collaborative effort between local and international syndicates,” Magsaysay, quoted in the report, said.
The CICC is an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). In a Senate inquiry last month, the CICC said that it was investigating six syndicates behind the text scams.
Magsaysay asked how much these syndicates stole from Filipino mobile users, bared that the amount is in the “millions of dollars.”
The CICC official also revealed that the agency is already building cases against the syndicates behind the text scams.
In a presentation, during the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Palo Alto Networks and the United States Agency for International Development, Magsaysay meanwhile said 37 percent of online users in the Philippines reported some form of cyberattack in 2020.
“At least 73 percent of consumer information from MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) is lost to attackers, higher than 56 percent across Asia-Pacific,” she said, quoted by GMA News report.
Earlier, Globe Telecom has temporarily blocked text messages that contain website links to prevent the said scams.
On September 12, the National Telecommunications Commission ordered telcos to block URLs, links, and quick response codes on text messages amid the proliferation of spam text messages, some of which contain the recipient’s full name.
In her presentation, during the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Palo Alto Networks and the United States Agency for International Development, Magsaysay said 37% of online users in the Philippines reported some form of cyberattack in 2020.
“At least 73% of consumer information from MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) is lost to attackers, higher than 56% across Asia-Pacific,” she said.