Globe, government to block importation of digital fraud services

MANILA, Philippines — Leading telecommunications firm Globe Telecom Inc. has initiated an effort to coordinate with law enforcement agencies to halt the importation of devices used for electronic and telecoms fraud.

Lawyer Froilan Castelo, Globe’s general counsel, said there was a need to strengthen enforcement to stop incidents of spoofing, where fraudsters send malicious texts to SIMs (subscriber identity modules) in a particular area in the guise of legitimate sender IDs using devices called the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) catcher.

These portable devices are imported to the Philippines either in full or in parts for assembly, then used for illegal activities. IMSI catchers can be carried around on foot or inside vehicles to target SIMs in a certain area and force them to downgrade to 2G, the old cellular network technology for voice calls and texts. Fraudsters are able to send malicious SMS to phones connected to their fake cell tower, appearing to be legitimate.

“We are working with the government to prevent the importation and use of IMSI catchers, which are the primary tools enabling these security breaches. We need more robust enforcement of the law concerning spoofing and the proliferation of this illegal equipment,” Castelo pointed out.

He said there was a need for urgent action amid the rising number of spoofing incidents where fraudsters impersonate legitimate and trusted sender IDs. This makes  it difficult for mobile users to detect that they were already being duped.

“SMS spoofing is already criminalized under the Cybercrime Prevention Act. So we are actively coordinating with law enforcement agencies to ensure the arrest of these spoofers,” Castelo said.

Reports of spoofing have seen a rise among mobile phone users as Globe has tightened the noose on scam and spam SMS through stricter blocking, including filtering out all person-to-person SMS with links and enforcing stringent regulations on app-to-person SMS with URLs.

In response to spoofing incidents, Globe has also stopped using clickable links in its official customer advisories to help mobile users more easily distinguish between legitimate and spoofed SMS.

The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) raised an alert last April 22 regarding the spread of an SMS-based fake Globe Rewards promotional campaign of the leading telco.

In an advisory, CICC executive director and ICT Undersecretary Alexander Ramos warned the public that scammers pose as Globe Telecom agents or representatives offering enrollment in a rewards program to collect personal and bank details of unsuspecting victims, and even get unsuspecting subscribers to transfer money.

Ramos said that the domain globeeph.top has been preying on vulnerable customers via short message service or SMS.

In addition to its efforts in combating spoofing, Globe continues to educate customers on how to protect themselves from various forms of digital fraud.