The Philippine National Police (PNP has renewed the call to enact a law that would mandate the registration of all SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards amid the proliferation of the personalized text scams in the past days.
Police Brig. Gen. Jose Chiquito Malayo, PNP officer-in-charge, said such law would add more teeth to the police, particularly its Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) to run after scammers whose modus appeared to have leveled up as the text messages they send now contains the names of the phone users.
"This is expected to assist law enforcers in identifying culprits or scammers who use their communication devices to victimize unsuspecting individuals," said Malayo.
Since late last month, social media went abuzz about text messages which contains the names of phone users.
This raised concerns among phone users and netizens on data privacy.
In the past few years, the PNP has been pushing for a law that would mandate the registration of prepaid cards which are being sold widely across the country at a very cheap price.
The PNP's support on the law began at the height of the series of bombings, especially in MIndanao, wherein terror groups would use cellphone-detonated improvised explosive devices.
Police investigators complained of the difficulty in identifying the culprits over unregistered prepaid cards.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed the SIM Card Registration Act early this year after a provision which included social media was allegedly inserted into the bill. Duterte saw it as an intrusion to privacy.
How'd they do that?
Police Brig. Gen. Joel Doria, director of the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG), said they have already conducted an investigation into the incident and the initial results disclosed that the senders’ numbers are not linked to any social media accounts, messaging apps and digital wallets.
“This is apparently to avoid identification by law enforces. We have already conducted social media exploitations and there are numerous possibilities on how scammers get hold of the personal information of the recipients of spam text messages,” said Doria.
First, Doria said the data may have been sold and bought in bulk in the dark web wherein hackers and techies use special software to buy and sell information. The special software prevents make the dark web users anonymous and untraceable.
Second, the information may have been obtained through social media platforms, websites, and phone directories around the internet.
And the third, according to Doria, are those raffle tickets and other standard application forms that customers and other people would fill out in the markets and other establishments.
“It can also be acquired thru random typing of numbers in social media messaging apps like ‘Viber’ which when added, the messaging app will automatically supply the person’s name,” said Doria.
OK with probe
Malayp said the PNP fully supports the proposed investigation of the Senate Committee on Public Services on continued proliferation of text scam messages victimizing millions of Filipinos.
"The PNP will contribute and cooperate in the investigation, as it did in the recent text scam cases handled by the PNP Anti Cybercrime Group," said Malayo.
However, Malayo said security measures should be in place to safeguard the prepaid subscriber’s data similar to security features postpaid SIM card subscribers.