Mobile network provider giants Globe Telecom Inc. and Smart Communication Inc. are intensifying their efforts to crack down on the continued proliferation of scam text messages that now have a new variant of bearing the recipient's name.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Sept. 6, Smart said it has blocked SIM cards that are used for sending scam text messages as well as the Uniform Resource Locators (URL) linked to it.
Smart said it invested Php 3 million last year to strengthen its cybersecurity infrastructure to protect its users from cyber threats, online fraud, and other criminal activities.
PLDT – Smart chief information security officer Angel Redoble assured its subscribers that there is “no breach” in its system and said that text scams are sent through individual SIM cards.
Leah Jimenez, PLDT-Smart's chief data privacy officer, said the company continues to work closely with the National Privacy Commission (NPC), the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), and law enforcement agencies to pin down the perpetrators behind scam texts.
In a separate statement, Globe said it will further step up its effort to combat the fraudulent texts amidst the pandemic where cybercriminals found new ways to deceive customers.
“At a time of aggressive cybercriminal activity amid growing digitalization, Globe asserts that the public, government, and industry players, including telcos, are all victims of these illegal acts. It is, thus, a shared fight among all of us to beat our common enemy, which is cybercrime,” said Anton Bonifacio, Globe chief information security office.
He said Globe has invested $20 million or Php 1.1 billion to enhance its capabilities in detecting and blocking scams and spam messages from both international and domestic sources.
The company has more than 100 people working in a 24/7 security operations center to detect attacks, breaches, and spam and text messages.
From January to July this year, the company was able to block 784 million scam and spam messages, deactivated 14,058 scam-linked SIMs, blacklisted 8,973 others, and also blocked 610 domains or URLs.
Globe's virtual wallet application, Gcash has also blocked 900,000 fraudulent accounts and helped arrest fraudsters from January to March this year.
On Aug. 31, the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) ordered Dito Telecommunity Corporation, Globe Telecoms Inc., and Smart Communications Inc. to text blast to warn subscribers against widespread fake text jobs, lucky winners, and other text scams.
