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MANILA, Philippines — The proliferation of spam messages came from international syndicates, a National Privacy Commission (NPC) official said on Tuesday, adding that there is no evidence that phone numbers were obtained through contact tracing forms.
During the Laging Handa briefing, NPC Commissioner Raymund Liboro said that the messages inviting phone users to apply for a job in well-known companies to earn a huge amount of money are a scam and came from an organized global syndicate.
“So, napakalaking scam po ito. Sa aming pagmo-monitor hindi lamang nangyayari sa Pilipinas maging sa ibang bansa. Ito po ay ginagawa po ng isang organized syndicate,” he said.
(This is a big scam. Based on our monitoring, it does not only happen in the Philippines but also in other countries. It is done by an organized syndicate.)
When asked if phone numbers could have been obtained from contact tracing forms, he disagreed.
“Dito sa pinag-uusapan natin, wala tayong direktang ebidensya na nagpapakita nito. Nakita natin ito, ito nga sabi ko nga, is an organized, international, global na sindikato ho ang gumagawa nito at gumagamit ng mga numero na nakuha po nila marahil sa ibang paraan po,” Liboro answered.
(We do not have direct evidence that shows it. We saw it comes from an organized, international, global syndicate and they got the numbers from other ways.)
“Malalaking database nila dito (They have a big database),” Liboro explained, adding that numbers may be acquired from those who breached or hacked data before.
Liboro warned that people behind the scam could face imprisonment of six months to two years or a fine of P500,000 to P2 million. If more sensitive information would be revealed, the punishment could be doubled.
He further warned the public who received spam messages to block the sender and report it to telecommunications companies.
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