SMART Communications Inc. yesterday warned its subscribers against unsolicited text messages that contain links and are sent by scammers using fake cell towers.
Scammers are able to bypass telco networks to send SMS directly to mobile users, and can even use legitimate company names as the sender name.
“We actively investigate these messages and permanently block those we find to be fraudulent,” according to Roy Ibay, Smart vice president and head of regulatory affairs.
Smart urged all its customers to #BeCyberSmart and continue to be vigilant against SMS scams. They can report these incidents to this address: https://smart.com.ph/huliscam, they simply need to take note of the sender’s mobile number or any alphanumeric characters if it is shown, the date when the message was received, the actual message, and the location where the message was received.
“When a person’s mobile phone unwittingly comes close to or within a certain radius of these machines that masquerade as cell towers, these machines are able to record or capture the mobile phone’s unique ID called IMSI, or international mobile subscriber identity. Once the machine has caught your mobile phone’s IMSI, scammers become able to push messages directly to your mobile phone without having to go through your cellular network,” said Ibay.
Fake cell towers can also create and use fake or masked message sender names or numbers, further deceiving subscribers into thinking that the SMS is coming from legitimate companies.
“We are actively collaborating with the National Telecommunications Commission and the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center to ramp up efforts to clamp down the illegal use and importation of these fake cell towers. These scammers had to circumvent the network safeguards that we have in place, so they have resorted to these illegal machines to continue victimizing people through phishing and other similar fraudulent activities,” added Ibay.
