The Philippine social media community has been abuzz with alarm and concern about people getting personalized scam or spam messages addressed to each recipient by name through short message service (SMS), or commonly known as text message, sent to mobile phone numbers.
In the past, these users would receive what could be called “generic spam” text messages offering jobs, informing them of winning a raffle prize, alerting them of a bank transaction, or asking for some personal information. But the message format was so obvious that people could immediately identify them as a spam or scam.
In the past weeks, the people sending those messages have leveled up and they now identify each recipient by name. That a stranger has sent this message is definitely a matter to cause alarm for it means that some unscrupulous people have captured one’s name and mobile phone number, with thousands of others. What other personal information have they captured? There is obviously a data leak somewhere.
But there’s much more to worry about, other than our names and numbers being known to scammers.
We need to worry more about the information we do not hesitate to give to social networking sites when we create our accounts.
Social networking sites ask for one’s name, work, phone number, gender, hometown, birthday, current address, language, places visited, and list of friends. These are data that you willingly gave so that you could create an account.
In exchange for having wide networking and thousands of friends, the social networking sites collect information about how an account uses it, "such as the types of content you view or engage with, the features you use, the actions you do, the people or accounts you engage with, and the time, frequency and duration of your activities."
They record everything while in use, including posts, videos, and other content you view, and even the devices linked to an account.
There’s a lot of data that’s just there waiting to be “captured” and used by unscrupulous persons adept in the use of technology.
A message addressed to a specific recipient attracts trust, the scammers know that. They have included a link for a “trusting” user to check, but which will lead to more information surrendered by the user. Many things can happen after that: One, the scammer can access a bank account or credit card — and steal the money there. Two, the scammer can access the user’s social media account, and contact his or her friends with a sob story asking for cash.
But you are safe unless you click the links on the message and engage with the scammers. The best thing to do when you get this message is to ignore it. If you want to protect your privacy, start with yourself. Fix your social media privacy and security settings now.
The government — the National Privacy Commission, the National Telecommunications Commission, and other concerned agencies — and the telcos should do more to safeguard the public. They have to unmask the scammers and those behind the data leak, then see to it that they are prosecuted, with the full extent of the law thrown at them.