The National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) urged the public to report directly to the telecom regulator’s office the details of the fraudulent scam messages that contain clickable weblinks.
In an advisory, NTC said a text scam message coming from an unknown mobile number that contains a job-offer and/or promises cash/discounts which may contain a clickable weblink, should be reported directly to the NTC for blocking.
NTC advised the public not to reply to these messages and not to click the weblink.
Subscribers should take a screenshot of the message with the mobile number of the sender and send the image to the NTC via email. They can then block the number and delete the message.
NTC’s advisory is part of the government’s initiatives to address the proliferation of text scams.
The Commission last week ordered mobile phone manufacturers, distributors and dealers to educate on mobile phone various features that can protect users from text scams and text spams.
NTC also issued an order directed Dito Telecommunity Corp., Globe Telecom Inc. and PLDT Inc. unit Smart Communications Inc. to deactivate clickable person-to-person URLs in text messages.
The NTC and three mobile operators are pushing for the passage of Subscriber identity module (SIM) card registration Act to address the rampant text scam messages.
