The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Thursday issued an order directing mobile phone manufacturers, distributors, and dealers to assist mobile phone users in activating the text-blocking feature on mobile devices amid rising SMS (short messaging service) scams.
Under NTC Memorandum No. 006-09-2022, the agency directed the parties to provide directions to mobile phone users on how to block texts from mobile numbers not in their contact lists and create a spam folder in their inboxes.
“These directions shall be disseminated through the manufacturer’s websites and social media accounts (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, etc.), the NTC said.
The regulator also ordered them to put up posters in their physical stores to educate consumers on how to block unwanted SMS, which often lead to internet sites that can steal the users’ personal information.
“Mobile phone manufacturers, distributors, and dealers shall include in each new mobile phone package an insert or leaflet containing directions on how to use, enable, or activate the text blocking, spam folder, and other similar features in their phones,” it added.
The NTC also informed the manufacturers, distributors, and dealers the new directive shall form part of the mandatory requirements for type approval/acceptance and related permits for customer premises equipment, particularly mobile phone products filed before the agency.
The commission earlier ordered telecom companies to block domains or Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) in text messages to protect their subscribers from text spam and scams.
The NTC directed telcos to submit a written report of their compliance to the agency on or before today (September 16, 2022).
Globe Telecom, Smart Communications, and DITO Telecommunity said they will comply with the NTC directive.
Globe said it blocked millions of scam and spam messages and deactivated 14,058 scam-linked mobile numbers, as well as blacklisting 8,973 more from January to July this year.
Smart said it blocked 342 million “smishing” (SMS phishing) messages in the past three months.
Adel Tamano, DITO Telecommunity Chief Administrative Officer, said his company is supporting the NTC initiative to protect the public from phishing, smishing, “quishing” (QR Code phishing) and other illegal activities.
“Telcos are hereby ordered to block or deactivate domains or Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), TinyURLs, Smart Links and/or QR Codes emanating from malicious sites based on existing databases culled from government agencies such as the NTC, National Privacy Commission, Department of Trade and Industry, law enforcement agencies, subscriber reports and those generated from machine learning or artificial intelligence,” the regulator said previously.
“Data aggregators” and contact-tracing apps are not the culprit in the ongoing “massive” spam phone messages that have targeted individuals through personalized smishing operations that include the recipients’ actual names, the National Privacy Commission (NPC) said earlier.
This developed as the Philippine National Police renewed its call to enact a law that would mandate the registration of all SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards, amid the explosion of personalized text scams in the past weeks.
Police Brig. Gen. Joel Doria, director of the PNP ACG, said their initial investigation disclosed that the senders’ numbers are not linked to any social media accounts, messaging apps, and digital wallets.
“This is apparently to avoid identification by law enforcers. We have already conducted social media exploitations and there are numerous possibilities on how scammers get hold of the personal information of the recipients of spam text messages,” said Doria.
He said the data may have been sold and bought in bulk on the “dark web,” where hackers and techies use special software to buy and sell information, which makes the users anonymous and untraceable.
The information may also have been obtained through social media platforms, websites, and phone directories around the internet.