PLDT blocks over 500 million smishing tries

MANILA, Philippines — Telecommunications leader PLDT Inc. blocked more than half a billion smishing messages in the first five months of the year, tightening its security measures to save subscribers from falling victim to digital fraud.

PLDT, together with its wireless unit Smart Communications Inc., is beefing up its cybersecurity protocols to block messaging scams and unmask the masterminds behind them.

From January to May, Smart blacklisted over 100,000 subscriber identity modules or SIMs that were found involved in the production and distribution of text scams within its network.

Smart is also building up its partnership with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) to strengthen its efforts in going after cybercriminals.

In particular, Smart wants to bring down what the telco industry calls scam hubs, where most fraudulent activities come from.

In line with this, Smart vice president and head of regulatory affairs Roy Ibay said the telco has instructed local dealers and regional outlets to improve the integrity of their distribution process.

Likewise, Smart is easing the process for reporting messaging scams to encourage subscribers to be proactive in flagging fraudulent activities.

Recently, Smart’s parent company PLDT introduced a cybersecurity tool called Watchdog, where PLDT employees can submit screenshots of smishing attempts.

“We are working closely with the CICC to investigate the personalities behind scam hubs and to hold them accountable for their roles in their illicit operations,” Ibay said.

Similarly, mobile communications giant Globe Telecom Inc. has reiterated its commitment to the government that every one of its subscribers is listed in its database, leaving little to no space for online fraud to go undetected.

Globe vice president and head of consumer mobile business Darius Delgado said the telco has no customer who owns an unregistered SIM.

Delgado assured authorities that Globe requires registration prior to activation for every SIM.

“We designed our SIM registration system in such a way that no SIM can be used on the network unless registered. Therefore, all active SIMs within our network are (registered) in our system,” he said.

Globe is determined to keep upgrading the security features of its registration platforms to keep up with evolving ways that cybercriminals commit fraud.

To date, Globe maintains a subscriber base of about 58.5 million, removing more than 30 million SIMs during the registration period from Dec. 27, 2022 to July 30, 2023. — Rainier Allan Ronda