Poe tells authorities to boost crackdown on text scammers amid SIM registration

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Grace Poe on Sunday reminded authorities not to slacken in its crackdown on mobile phone scammers as the registration of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) continues.

“There are still SIM farms out there and spoofing tools. Sinister minds will never stop hatching ways of stealing information and duping people,” Poe warned in a statement.

Poe then told the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) not to underestimate lawbreakers, even after reporting a decrease in scam messages.

She also urged DICT and telecommunications companies to pull out all the stops to make the public register their SIM number on or before the April 26, 2023 deadline.

Poe said that while the SIM Registration Act allows for an extension, this should be used to further step up the SIM registration campaign.

“With the law, we expect all fraudulent and unwanted text messages to die a natural death. But we must not let our guard down,” Poe said.

“The extension period, if so decided by the DICT, will be for the legitimate subscribers to register and avoid disruption in their mobile phone services.  This should not extend the heydays of the scammers,” Poe added.

Citing the DICT, Poe said around 45.8 million or 27.12 percent of the 169 million SIMs are in use nationwide. The SIM Registration Act then requires all existing subscribers to enlist their mobile numbers with their service network.

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