Privacy body completes initial probe into text scams

MANILA, Philippines — The National Privacy Commission finished its initial probe into text message scams plaguing mobile phone users all over the country, although results of the investigation remain unknown.

The NPC disclosed in a Viber message to reporters on Wednesday that they will rope in the National Telecommunications Commission and telecommunications firms into a meeting tomorrow to discuss a way forward.

While meeting details are still hazy, text scams have become commonplace in past months for anyone who owned a mobile phone. Recently, some mobile users even reported receiving text scams that mention their full names.

For entrepreneur Kristian Kountur, he noticed that he started receiving scammy text messages months into the pandemic. 

“I noticed it happens everytime I registered a number. It became more frequent during when we had to log our name and numbers on mall or restaurant entrances. Since then I always put a fake number,” he said in an interview. 

Months into the public health crisis, contact tracing efforts were largely Filipinos signing over control of their personal information to commercial establishments and the national government. This proved to be a public concern amid lockdown-era Philippines as reports sprung up that the spam messages were suddenly in vogue again. 

“I think everyone gets it. I think this is system generated,” Kountur added. 

This worried Kountur, especially since the Philippine economy warmed up to digital services amid the pandemic. Even the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas warned the public about SMiShing, a text scam luring unsuspecting consumers to malicious websites that could farm personal data. 

Globe Telecom Inc. said in a statement on Wednesday that it blocked an estimated 784 million scam and spam messages from January to July. Likewise, the Ayala-led telco giant said it deactivated 14,058 scam-linked mobile numbers and blacklisted an additional 8,973. 

"We are complying with its latest order to issue a warning against a new breed of scam messages that bear users’ full names while making fake job offers or cash prizes," the company said.

Back in November 2021, the privacy body summoned telcos, banks and e-commerce firms demanding answers on what the private sector is doing to address the text scam explosion. The NPC said a global criminal syndicate is pulling the strings of these scams. 

“Same case with email, we start to want separate emails and numbers for particulars to keep our data safe,” Kountur said.