The National Privacy Commission (NPC) yesterday said it has formally launched an investigation on telcos as well as bank and payment platforms on their possible accountability in the wave of smishing incidents in recent weeks.
The NPC said in a statement an inter-agency body has also been formed to go after scammers.
The agency said the probe will determine whether or not telcos had exercised due diligence and accountability in transacting with data aggregators linked to the sending of texts offering spurious jobs and investment schemes.
The NPC said in a statement it has sent yesterday Globe Telecom, Inc., Smart Communications Inc. and Dito Telecommunity Corp. orders to submit within five days documents and information that will provide the Commission specifics on their data flows and transactions involving data aggregators.
The NTC also sent orders to Union Bank of the Philippines Inc. and GCash (Mynt – Globe Fintech Innovations Inc.) —— the main payment channels where victims are directed to deposit their investments.
The NPC is also pushing for call and text attestation to trace the owner of a number used in calling or sending texts, as these are listed in a registry.
According to the NPC, involved in the proliferation of smishing and text spams are data aggregators which could be legal entities tapped by companies such as global brands to act on their behalf and deal with telcos in blasting promotions and other company messages to their customers.
Commissioner Raymund Liboro said that at the meeting with the NPC on November 24,data protection officers of Globe Telecom and Smart Communications revealed they traced the smishing and text spams to China and India-web- hosted companies.
In its report to the NPC, Globe in particular identified a data broker, Macrokiosk, that was tapped by a firm named China Skyline Telecom, as the primary source of messages that “share the theme of job hiring and contain a Whatsapp contact link.”
Globe said 1.55 million of such messages were sent through its network from November 11 to 21 alone.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Friday that it would coordinate with its counterparts abroad to build cases against the perpetrators of this cybercrime.
Smart Communications has blocked at least 60 web domains. Globe Telecom has blocked 1 billion messages since January, preventing them from reaching and scamming mobile phone users.
Meanwhile, the NPC said a task force was formed on November 26 to help ombat smishing and text spams that have cost a number of Filipinos their hard-earned money was the creation of an inter- agency group. It is composed of the NPC, Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) which is the task force lead, Department of Information and Communications Technology, National Telecommunications Commission, DOJ, Department of Trade and Industry , Department of Labor and Employment, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, National Security Council and Anti-Money Laundering Council.
The CICC will receive complaints from cellular phone subscribers and will be tasked with forwarding the numbers used by scammers to telcos for blocking. – Irma Isip
