The leader in mobile industry, Globe, has begun temporarily blocking scam text messages from Prepaid and Postpaid lines that contain Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) or website links as a proactive measure against spam and scam texts.
Just last week, Globe Telecom Inc. has announced that they will be dedicated on solving the increasing problem on text messages by frauds and scammers. This is due to the escalating reports of spams, including SMS from different unknown numbers indicating customers’ complete names and information.
As of today, the telco is already on the move in preventing
the transmission of text messages from all networks that have clickable links
from being sent to specific individuals.
SMS with links won't be delivered anymore
The Chief Information Security Officer of Globe, Anton Bonifacio, said, “Before implementing this measure, what we were doing was blocking access to malicious links in text messages to help protect customers. This time around, we’re blocking the actual message. If the SMS has a link of any kind, we are not going to deliver it, period. This is necessary to protect our customers,”.
On the other hand, the SIM Registration Bill, which was approved by both Houses of Congress on September 28 and is anticipated to be forwarded to the President for signature, will not take effect until it has been passed and implemented, according to the top digital solutions platform.
This extra safety measure is believed by Globe to provide carriers more flexibility to safeguard their clients’ data and systems against fraud. More importantly, continuing this action will be very essential to improving the government’s ability to catch cybercriminals and other people who abuse digital technologies as well.
Globe continues to ensure its users' security
Anton Bonifacio emphasized that they are very much aware how the modus operandi of scammers today keeps on getting sophisticated. Which is the very reason that they are now taking extra steps to protect their 92 million subscribers, including GCash’ 66 million users, in hopes that it will make a major dent on SMS scam rackets.
“This major step reflects our commitment to the country’s economic recovery by ensuring that the accelerated digital adoption does not expose customers to worsening cyber threats,” he added.
Other plans on their safety measures
In order to secure the legitimacy of the system, Globe has been collaborating closely with lawmakers on the creation and adoption of a sensible SIM Registration law.
If this is passed into law, SIM card users will be required to provide legitimate government identification documents and register their personal information with the telecommunications organizations or approved card merchants. With this, minors would need to use their parent’s or guardian’s name.
Globe is also asking for a change to a clause in the law that requires telecoms to keep SIM registration data for 10 years after deactivation. Since registered prepaid SIM users are known to often change their phone numbers, the telco is suggesting that telecoms be required to instead store historical data on them.
One of these is the telco’s need for a genuine and verified source document, which will allow telecoms to double-check the identification of SIM holders in light of the abundance of fake IDs.
Progress on blocked scam text messages, numbers, and links
In a previous statement, Globe said that it had already previously blocked 14,058 SIM cards or scam-linked mobile numbers, and 784 million spam and scam messages, and 610 websites or URLs. This record was from January until the end of July this year.
So far, the telco has already invested $20 million, or around 1.1 billion, in capital improvements aimed at enhancing its capacity to identify and filter spam and scam messages from both local and foreign sources, including app-to-person and person-to-person SMS.
