‘As the CICC prepares to file criminal charges against some of the perpetrators, the public is pinning its hope on the enrolled bill, SIM Registration Act, which has been sent by Congress to President Marcos for signing.’
WE may never accurately know how much money was lost by naive and trusting Filipinos here and abroad to various groups of scammers who use the SMS technology or texting in duping people and running away with their money.
A government agency, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), said in a report that the amount has reached millions of dollars. The victims are both young and old telecom network subscribers in the Philippines who ended up clicking on malicious links and giving up sensitive information.
On the urging of senators and the general public, the CICC has conducted an investigation on the problem and is now getting ready to release a report, says the agency’s deputy executive director, Mary Rose Magsaysay. Not only did she confirm that millions of US dollars have been lost to these financial syndicates, but she also supported the initial findings of telco giant PLDT Inc. that the messaging scams with personalized details came from foreign sources.
It is important to note that as established by the probe done by the CICC, local cohorts are hired by these foreign syndicates to assist them in the fraudulent activities.
The government and private media have not been remiss in reminding the public about the existence of these scams. The hooligans try to dupe Filipinos into revealing and compromising their sensitive information, especially bank details and personal data. Even the banks have issued regular reminders to their depositors and other clients to be wary of similar fraudulent attempts. The two big telcos — Smart and Globe — have started as early as September to block these short messages that are directed to particular subscribers.
An executive from PLDT said local groups are working with these foreign criminals in acquiring SIM cards in bulk. These SIMs are used in sending out the text scams that try to deceive Filipinos into clicking on links that can hack into their personal database.
Globe Telecom Inc., meanwhile, has started to block text messages containing clickable links in a step to further prevent digital fraud. All messages from prepaid and postpaid numbers that carry a uniform resource locator will no longer be allowed to pass through Globe’s network. Meanwhile, Smart Communications Inc. blocked website links that lead to malicious sites.
As the CICC prepares to file criminal charges against some of the perpetrators, the public is pinning its hope on the enrolled bill, SIM Registration Act, which has been sent by Congress to President Marcos for signing. Even if it becomes a law, it will take months before the nation can get palpable benefits from this measure, so there is nothing better than personal caution and security consciousness among the people to combat these financial scams.
