Complaints about text scams declined and then sharply increased right after the deadline of the SIM registration ended, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said on Tuesday, September 5.
NTC Commissioner Ella Blanca Lopez disclosed this phenomenon during the Senate Committee on Public Services’ inquiry on the continuing proliferation of text scams despite the implementation of the SIM Registration Act.
According to Lopez, the NTC noted a decline in the text scam complaints received in their office during the early phase of the SIM registration.
After the seven-month registration ended in July 25, 2023, the agency noticed a sharp increase of reported scams in the ensuing month.
“As of date, we have received a total of 45,697 complaints related to scams,” Lopez told senators during the hearing.
As a result, the technical working group that came up with the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the law held a meeting on August 29 to discuss the possible mechanism for post-registration validation.
She said this is to remove registrations that used fraudulent identification (IDs) and fictitious identities.
However, so far, only two telecommunication companies (telcos) have submitted their proposals for post-registration validation.
For his part, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian urged the NTC to conduct post validation on registered SIM cards to ensure that those who are registered are real people.
During the hearing, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) disclosed that there are registered SIM card owners who sell their SIM cards.
Gatchalian pointed out that post validation can prevent anyone with fake ID cards to register SIM cards and prevent syndicates from using them.
“We cannot allow monkeys, horses to be registered. We have to do something or else this will happen over and over again,” Gatchalian said.
Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate public services panel noted that nearly 114 million SIM cards were registered after the seven-month registration that ended on July 25.
After the period of listup, Poe said these unregistered SIM should have been deactivated and those that are registered and are still being used to scam the public should be traceable and blocked.
“Karamihan ng mga SIMs na ito ay hindi pa bukas pero pre-registered na. Hindi maipaliwanag ng mga telcos kung paano nangyari ito. Hindi kaya inside job? Paano at saan sila nakakuha ng ganitong karaming SIM? Mayroon bang black market ng pre-registered SIMs (Most of these SIMs are not yet opened but are already pre-registered. The telcos cannot explain how these happened. Isn’t this an inside job? Where can they get that huge number of SIM cards? Is there a black market of pre-reigstered SIMs)?” Poe questioned.
Poe has long suspected that some Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) are illegally involved in this crime.
She pointed to the 27,000 SIM cards that were retrieved by operatives from Rivendell Global Support Inc. when they conducted a raid in the SKK Building in Pasay City where it is located.
“Hindi ba natin pwedeng hanapin lahat yun? Sinong mga mayari ng mga sim na yun? At kasuhan natin. O kaya imbestigahan paano ba napunta dyan ang sim mo kasi kung nasa vault lang yun, 27,000 na yun nakaligtas yun (Can we not look for it? Who owns those SIMs and shouldn’t we charge them? Or maybe investigate where those SIMs went because it was just in one vault, all those 27,000 SIMS),” Poe asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) during the hearing.
Under the law, Poe said telcos are obliged to make available user-friendly reporting mechanisms for fraudulent calls and texts.
"Many others do not want to go through the hassle of reporting. Hingan ka ba naman ng dalawang valid ID bago makapag-report sa NTC at telcos. Maraming Pilipino ang wala pa ring ID, dalawa pa kaya? Bakit mas pahirapan ang pag-report habang mukhang mas madaling mag-register ng SIM (Why ask for two valid IDs before you report to the NTC and telcos? Many Filipinos still do not have an ID, and you have to ask for two? Why does it seem to be more difficult to report while registering SIM is easier)?" Poe said.
Poe pointed out the law has strong penalites for such offenses ranging from breach of confidentiality to submission of fictitious information during registration.
"With tracing comes prosecution…Walang maloloko kung walang manloloko na nakakapag-rehistro. Tulungan dapat ang gobyerno at telcos na matugunan ang krisis na ito (There could be no scammers if no scammer can register. We should help the government and telcos to resolve this crisis),” Poe said.