Smart blocks nearly 2 billion malicious text messages

MANILA, Philippines —  Malicious text messages blocked by Smart Communications Inc. this year have reached nearly two billion, as the company continues to intensify its crackdown against text scams.

PLDT’s wireless unit said it was able to prevent these malicious text messages from reaching customers from January to October this year.

Further, it has blacklisted almost a million numbers tied to scams and other fraudulent activities during that period.

Patrick Santos, first vice president and chief information security officer at PLDT and Smart, said more than 200 million malicious text messages were prevented, and more than 46,000 mobile numbers being used to scam the public were blocked in October alone.

“We urge our customers to be vigilant against text messages embedded with hyperlinks as these usually lead to phishing domains,” Santos said.

Smart said it continues to look deeper into the use of fake cell towers as fraudsters turn to these illegal devices to victimize the public.

According to the company, fake cell towers allow scammers to push messages directly to mobile users in a localized area, bypassing the telco network’s infrastructure and often appearing as legitimate messages from trusted sources.

Smart has added a location field in its HuliScam public anti-scam reporting portal to note areas where customers usually receive these messages to help detect where these fake cell towers operate.

The PLDT Group has engaged the National Telecommunications Commission and the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center for collaborative efforts to fight SMShing that include the investigation, apprehension and prosecution of scammers.

The group also has a campaign that continues to share practical information on schemes used by scammers to defraud the public.

Customers who receive text scams and other SMShing messages are encouraged to report these incidents to Smart’s anti-scam platform.

Smart said that aside from the location, the portal will also ask customers to provide the mobile number that sent the unsolicited message, the suspicious message, as well as the malicious link embedded in the text message.