Wave of ‘latest variant’ text scams spurs NTC to step up awareness drive
FILE PHOTO: NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba. CATHY MIRANDA/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has recognized a wave of text scams this month “across telecommunication networks,” including what it called “the latest variant” that contains the name of the recipient.
In a memorandum dated August 26, NTC chief Gamaliel A. Cordoba enumerated that among the suspicious texts were fake jobs, sham lucky winners, and other money-making schemes that aim to deceive and dupe unsuspecting receivers.
Taking action against the scammers, Cordoba ordered NTC’s regional directors and officers-in-charge to speak to local radio and television stations about the dangers of text message scams.
“The proliferation of fake job text, the lucky winner, and similar money scams targeting the general public has persisted over the month of August across telecommunications networks in the country with the latest variant including the name of the recipient,” reads the NTC chief’s memo addressed to the agency’s regional directors and officers-in-charge.
“In the interest of the service, you are once more directed to appear before local radio and television stations within your respective jurisdictions to warn the public against the continuing text scams from 31 August to 06 September 2022 and to continue your respective local public information campaigns to educate the public of these scams,” the memo also states.
Text scams have been the subject of NTC alarms before. In a similar memorandum issued on June 29, Cordoba asked telco firms to give subscribers warnings.
READ: NTC says text scams remain ‘unabated’; presses telcos, offices to issue warnings
Other government officials have also raised concerns over the persistence of scam texts.
Associate Justice Marivic Leonen described the situation as “very dangerous,” asserting that “this means that there is a data provider out there that has leaked or sold or been careless about our information.”
Senators Grace Poe and Juan Miguel Zubiri have also re-filed separate bills that would mandate the registration of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards to combat text scams and other forms of fraud.
