Lawmakers have asked the Department of Information and Communications Technology to explain why text scams continue despite the registration of all SIM cards.
DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy, for his part, blamed organized syndicates who he said have shifted to over-the-top (OTT) platforms to victimize mobile phone users.
Uy said these syndicates are buying pre-registered SIMs from people willing to sell them.
“These people have little regard for protecting their identity or credentials, which is mostly from poor communities,” Uy said in a Viber message.
“At the same time, the syndicates have also shifted to OTT platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger,” he added.
Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel of the Makabayan bloc raised the matter during the agency’s budget hearing Thursday as the DICT told legislators that over 118 million subscribers have completed the registration process.
“While the SIM registration deadline has passed, many are still facing text scams and other forms of SIM-assisted fraud,” Manuel said.
In response, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, an attached agency of the DICT, also attributed the continued text scams to the purchase of registered SIM cards by organized syndicates as well as new machines that can simulate SIM cards.
“We have uncovered that certain organized syndicates have been procuring pre-registered sim cards. That is one issue we have raised with telcos and the DICT family to formulate how to address the issue of selling pre-registered SIM cards,” CICC Executive Director Alexander Ramos told the panel chaired by Ako-Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co.
“The second one is there are new machines that came into the country, wherein you don’t even need a sim card, but rather a text blaster that can simulate sim card numbers. We are coordinating with the Bureau of Customs, educating them on what it looks like so that they will be able to prevent the importation of such machines,” he added.
To address the problem, Ramos asked the public to report text scams to “help authorities to identify the source of the message.”
“Unlike before, we didn’t have the power to prosecute them, in fact, arrest them once located. But the sim card registration enabled us already,” Ramos said.
“We have a lot of names. In fact, we have thousands of names here that we are verifying right now. We are doing it with the use of AI to weed out the real registered and the fake registered names,” he added.
Froilan Castelo, general counsel of the Globe Group, said the company is ready to work with the government in responding to the prevalence of spam and scam SMS.
“Just as we learn how to optimize new technologies, fraudsters also do the same and come up with ingenious ways to corrupt the best technologies for criminal ends. We, therefore, appeal to mobile users to also take personal responsibility in protecting themselves. Please do not share too much information online that criminals may use to access your bank accounts, e-wallets, and other sensitive personal accounts,” said Yoly Crisanto, Globe Group Chief Sustainability and Corporate Communications Officer.
“Please do not share too much information online that criminals may use to access your bank accounts, e-wallets, and other sensitive personal accounts,” she added.
Globe continues to proactively block spam and scam SMS, including all person-to-person SMS with links, logging record numbers of blocked text messages at 2.2 billion from January to June 2023 alone. This figure is a nearly four-fold increase from the 615.01 million it logged in the same period last year.
The PLDT Group also urged the public to double-check messages they receive through text and email before opening any attachments or clicking on links.
“Social engineering remains the most common tactic used by criminals to lure customers into giving up vital information. There is no silver bullet to fighting cybercrime,” said Angel Redoble, first vice president and chief Information Security Officer of PLDT and Smart said.
“We strongly urge our customers to adopt a cybersecurity mindset to avoid falling prey to scams and fraud,” Redoble added.