The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) wants Smart Communications Inc. to submit an official report on the status of its compliance to Republic Act No. 11934 or the SIM Card Registration Law.
CICC executive director Alexander Ramos made the urgent call following the proliferation of unregistered SIM cards that are being used in text scams and in various forms of cybercrimes.
The CICC is closely working with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to find solutions to the continuous proliferation of text scam despite the implementation of the SIM Card Law.
Ramos said they were alarmed when ongoing inquiry found that unregistered SIM cards were being used to receive online bank transaction messages.
“We have been receiving a litany of complaints from the public that they continue to receive unwanted text messages either offering them loans, online gambling, cryptocurrency investments and job offers from unknown persons identified with Smart issued numbers,” he said.
“It’s time for the government to get tough on these telcos,” he said.
Smart said in a separate statement that it intensified the fight against scammers, clamping down on those that use fraudulently registered SIMs to commit crimes.
Smart blacklisted more than 615,788 mobile numbers tied to illicit and fraudulent activities, including spamming and SMShing scams from January to May this year.
This number includes all fraudulently registered SIMs, purged through Smart’s strict validation process of all SIM registrations. Smart also continues to strengthen its SIM registration controls.
Smart has implemented enhanced verification mechanisms, including the adoption of “live selfie” and liveness checks, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), facial recognition and matching, disabling of the upload of stock selfies, and verification of registrations prior to activation since December last year, in compliance with the National Telecommunications Commission’s directive.
“We actively collaborate with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center and the NTC, our peers in the telecom industry, and other allies from the private and public sectors, to have a comprehensive response to the menace of SMShing and phishing scammers,” PLDT and Smart chief information security officer Jojo Gendrano said.
“We remain deeply committed to providing a safe and secure communications platform and digital services for Filipinos,” he said.