The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Friday, July 21, warned the public to practice extra caution as the subscriber identity module (SIM) registration ends in four days.

Photo credit to MB Visual Content Group

"Maghahabol lahat ng scammers. So dobleng ingat, tripleng ingat po (scammers will chase [exploit days before the deadline]. So, the public should be double-triple careful)," DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said. 

However, Uy underscored that days before the deadline are scammer's "last hurrah" on committing their crimes.

104M registrees as of July 20

As of July 20, DICT said the total SIM registrants reached 104,334,729. 

Globe Telecom, Inc. recorded 47,587,138 registrants; Smart Communications Inc. with 49,324,526; and 7,423,065 for DITO Telecommunity Corporation.

Scammers shift to different platforms

Since SIM card registration may reveal their identity, DICT said scammers adopted the situation and shifted to different platforms. Thus, Uy urged people to become more "vigilant."

"I need to warn the public to be more vigilant because scammers can use any resources. They use everything for scamming, and you may receive a message from other platforms," Uy said in a mix of English and Filipino.  

Surge in scammers with SIM registration extension 

Uy also mentioned the drastic increase in scammers as the government announced an extension of SIM registration in April. 

Read:

https://mb.com.ph/2023/4/25/marcos-approves-dict-s-proposal-to-extend-sim-registration-period

"Alam niyo po nung nag-announce kami ng extension ng sim card registration, napansin namin na biglang nag surge, ang mga scammers, we have [an] index - we have monitoring kasi yung mga incidents (as you all know, when we announced the extension of sim card registration, we noticed a sudden surge of scammers. We have an index-- we are monitoring scammer incidents.), Uy said.

No SIM registration extension

Meanwhile, the DICT chief confirmed that there will be no additional extension for the SIM registration. 

"There is no extension, July 25 is the hard deadline," Uy said. 

Given this, he encouraged unregistered users to register. "Please, magpa -rehistro na kayo dahil by 12:01 of July 26 wala na pong connectivity ang mga hindi nag pa register ng SIM card (Please register because, at 12:01 a.m of July 26, unregistered SIM cards will lose their connectivity)," he added. 

Meanwhile, National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Deputy Commissioner Jon Paulo Salvahan explained that Electronic-wallet (E-wallet) users "will just be unable to access it without first registering their SIM card."

He underscored that E-wallets associated with SIM cards will be temporarily deactivated until these are registered. (Sonny Daanoy)

Read: 

https://mb.com.ph/1970/1/1/ntc-expects-110-m-registrants-as-sim-registration-deadline-approaches-2