Senator Win Gatchalian is eyeing a SIM Registration Law amendment to curb the widespread scam operations in the country.
In a press release on Monday, Gatchalian emphasized the need to clearly distinguish individuals or organizations that enable the use of registered Subscriber Identity Modules (SIM) in illegal operations such as POGOs and scams. According to the senator, the surge of online scams is causing massive financial losses for unsuspecting victims.
Despite the enactment of Republic Act 11934 or the SIM Registration Act in October 2022, illegal or scamming activities continue to prevail.
“There has been a continued discovery of registered SIMs, cellphones, computers, and pocket Wi-Fi devices, especially in POGO operations that are engaged in various forms of online scams, such as love scams and cryptocurrency scams,” Senator Gatchalian said.
Before the President’s directive, POGO hubs facilitated their operations on money laundering, cybercrime, and other scamming activities through their registered SIMs. Moreover, law enforcers also recovered numerous cellular phones and digital devices containing the registered SIMs in the raids conducted in POGO hubs in Pampanga and Tarlac. The SIMs were used to execute fraudulent transactions.
To strengthen the banning of all POGO operations in the country, adjustments to the SIM Registration law were proposed by Gatchalian. He earlier filed Senate Resolution 1054, which seeks to investigate the use of SIMs in illegal operations.
