Poe urges authorities to pursue scammers

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Grace Poe on Wednesday urged law enforcers to pursue and file charges against mobile phone scammers after the SIM card registration deadline on July 25.

“The end of SIM registration signals the beginning of intensified crackdown on mobile phone scammers,” Poe said.

“They will no longer be clueless when a victim reports a text scam. We expect a speedy response to complaints,” she added.

From January to June this year, there were 4,104 cybercrime cases recorded, which is 190 percent higher compared to 1,415 cases in the same period last year.

Poe earlier said at a press conference that the surge in reported cases meant that the law helped authorities monitor cybercrime.

More than 105 million Filipinos registered their SIM cards before the deadline. This means that 63 percent of existing SIM cards nationwide have been registered.

‘Valuable’

Criminals will likely target SIM cards for identity theft and other new modus operandi after the SIM card registration deadline.

“I ask mobile phone owners and law enforcers to be ready for the new modus operandi of criminals because, with SIM registration, the SIM card is potentially more valuable than the phone itself,” Manila Rep. Joel Chua warned.

“Before, snatchers would throw away the SIM cards of the mobile phones that they snatched. But now, the SIM cards have more value because of mandatory registration,” he noted.

Chua urged telecommunication companies to quickly deactivate or block stolen SIM cards to incapacitate criminal elements.

Risks

The Junk SIM Registration Network held a protest on July 26 outside the Department of Information and Communications Technology calling for the reactivation of SIM cards that have not been registered before the deadline.

Mobile users have five days to register and reactivate their SIM cards after the July 25 deadline.

The group said users will be exposed to “unnecessary risks” such as losing access to e-wallets, mobile Internet access, emergency text alerts and delivery and shipping services.

Scams

The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) expressed hope that voice phishing scammers and unsolicited text messages will be eradicated with the full implementation of the SIM Card Registration Law.

“We already have a database of fraud incidents,” CICC Undersecretary Alexander Ramos told The STAR in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Ramos said they are on the lookout for identity theft cases.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has reported an increase in hacked Facebook accounts ever since the SIM Registration Act took effect in December 2022.

From January to June this year, there were 743 Facebook hacking incidents recorded, which is 178.72 percent higher compared to 503 incidents in 2021.

The PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group reminded users to enable two-factor authentication and avoid using public WiFi networks. – Sheila Crisostomo, Janvic Mateo, Rainier Allan Ronda, Emmanuel Tupas