Smart steps up drive vs load scammers

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Communications Inc., the wireless arm of dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), has stepped up its campaign against scammers to protect its millions of subscribers.

Smart public affairs head Ramon Isberto said the company is fortifying its efforts to protect the interest of its subscribers through a customer education campaign and additional security features for its mobile load services in anticipation of the rise in scams with Christmas just around the corner.

He pointed out that Smart has launched an education campaign to inform subscribers about the modus operandi of unscrupulous scammers.

The most common complaint involves Pasaload, a service that allows subscribers to transfer load credits to others.

 “Scammers have been misleading our subscribers into transferring load credits to them, by saying the subscribers need to send a particular code to 808, our Pasaload number, in order to get prizes, refunds, discounts, or free prepaid load. Then the scammers would sell this load to others. This is why we decided to institute additional security measures involving Pasaload,” he said.

According to him, Smart now requires subscribers to confirm Pasaload requests to make sure they are aware of the transaction.

If subscribers send an SMS to 808, Smart sends a message informing them that they are about to transfer load to another person. Load will only be transferred once the subscribers send YES to 808 within 15 minutes.

The same security feature is now in place for Sun Cellular’s Give-A-Load transactions. If Sun subscribers do not confirm their Give-A-Load request within 15 minutes, the transaction request would expire.

 “This is to ensure that subscribers do not transfer load unwittingly. With this additional security feature, we are expecting to further bring down cases of Pasaload scams,” Isberto said.

Isberto also said that Smart continues to coordinate closely with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and police authorities to prevent scammers from victimizing more subscribers.