Filipinos will now be "better protected" against mobile phone-based scams thanks to the signing of the SIM Card Registration Act, also known as Republic Act (RA) No.11934.
Thus, said Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte, saying that the new law makes it easier for public telecommunications or telco entities (PTEs) "to trace persons behind text scams and hold them accountable for breach of privacy along with celfone-based fraud and other punishable offenses they are able to perpetrate by using unknown or unregistered mobile phone numbers".
One such act of fraud is "smishing", which is the short messaging service (SMS) equivalent of phishing. Under smishing, scammers try to hoodwink unsuspecting mobile phone users into giving them personal information, like passwords and credit card numbers so that these tricksters can use such details to commit identity theft. After this, they can duplicate the victims’ credit cards or withdraw money from their bank accounts.
Villafuerte is a co-author of RA No.11934, which President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. signed into law on Monday, Oct. 10. It's also the first law to be produced by the current 19th Congress.
"The Philippines has been dubbed as the fastest-growing digital economy among major ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member-states, registering a whopping 93 percent year-on-year expansion from 2020 to 2021. This figure speaks volume of how Filipinos have become heavily reliant on the advances of technology, especially when it comes to the convenience of online transactions," said Villafuerte, who is president of the National Unity Party (NUP)
“But the apparent helplessness of our authorities in stopping cyber criminals from preying on the owners of over a hundred million through smishing and other scams has become the darkside of the digital transformation in our country where there are more mobile phones than people,” he noted.
“Hence, it is high time that we secure our mobile SIMs from the proliferation of phone-based frauds through the mandatory registration of both prepaid and postpaid subscribers and their numbers.”
Citing a media report by the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), Villafuerte said SMS or text scams have allegedly fleeced millions of dollars from celfone subscribers who have accessed links that enabled cyber criminals to retrieve personal data and bank details from these victims.
SIM stands for subscriber identity module. The law orders PTEs or direct sellers to require their end users or subscribers to present valid identification documents with photos to ascertain their identities when they acquire SIM cards for their mobile phones.
The PTEs or direct sellers are further directed to require their end users to accomplish and sign control-numbered registration forms for their purchased SIM cards.
These registration forms shall include an attestation by the end users that the persons appearing before the direct sellers are the same persons who accomplished and signed the registration forms, and that the identification documents presented herein are valid and correct.
Failure of end users to comply with this requirements shall be a ground for the PTEs or direct sellers to refuse the sale and issuance of SIM cards to these buyers.
Except in cases where the PTEs are the direct sellers, the measure states that the accomplished registration forms must be submitted to the concerned PTEs within 15 days from the dates of sale. End users must also include in their registration forms their respective SIM cards or respective celfone numbers and their cards’ serial numbers.
PTEs are required to submit to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), within thirty (30) days from the date of effectivity of this proposed Act, the verified lists of their current authorized dealers and agents nationwide.