THE National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has noted a three-fold decline in the number of spam and text scam messages reported daily following a crackdown on illegal Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGO) in the country.
The average number of reports on text spam and scam messages has dropped to around 40,000 to 50,000 messages per day following the announcement by the President of the POGO ban starting 2025, Jon Paulo Salvahan, NTC deputy commissioner, said in an interview on the sidelines of the DITO Pasasalamat event on Tuesday in Makati.
Prior to this, the reports average between 150,000 and 200,000 messages per day.
Salvahan said NTC expects the decline in reported text scam messages to continue even as it intensifies its coordination with the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group and the National Bureau of Investigation in tracking down the source of text spam and scam messages on ongoing cases.
However, NTC has noted a shift in text spams and scams from traditional messaging to over-the-top (OTT) apps.
To resolve this, Salvahan said t officials from NTC and OTT service providers Viber, telegram, whatsapp and Facebook agreed on the reporting mechanisms on the scams.
Meanwhile, Globe Telecom Inc. yesterday reiterated its call for the public to exercise vigilance against short messaging service (SMS) spoofing, a sophisticated scam tactic that has seen a resurgence in recent months, with fraudsters using names of reputable organizations to take advantage of customers’ trust.
“Spoofing is a form of cybercrime that is becoming increasingly difficult to detect. We urge everyone to be extra cautious with any SMS that asks for personal information or prompts to click on a link. Globe will never send a clickable link in its official customer advisories,” Anton Bonifacio, Globe chief information security officer, said in a statement.
PLDT Inc. wireless unit Smart Communications Inc. also warned customers about solicitations being sent through online messaging platforms and OTT apps.
Smart has received reports about unscrupulous individuals pretending to be company executives or representatives of organizations asking for donations for made-up or nonexistent relief operations.
The scammers would then send payment QR codes where potential victims are supposed to send their “donations.”
