HOTSPOT
Did you see the video from the National Bureau of Investigation about the successful use of an ID photo showing a monkey to register a SIM card?
Did you read about a senator’s suggestion that a citizen should only be able to register only one SIM card and be made to pay for extra ones?
In fairly recent raids, authorities seized not just computers and phones but also thousands of “pre-registered” SIM cards.
Meantime, tens of thousands have complained about unsolicited text messages. Many among us have received cold calls from both foreign and domestic numbers.
It is thus no surprise that fervent believers of SIM registration as a silver bullet against text spam, text scams, identity theft and other criminal activities are beginning to belatedly doubt the wisdom of their belief.
We do not know what has happened to the thousands of “pre-registered” SIM cards seized by authorities in raids of suspected online criminal syndicates. It is not yet known whether government’s digital sleuths have obtained court warrants in order to determine who registered them, whose identity documents, or whether the IDs were stolen or used without authorization from the real owners.
GMA News reported 28,000 pre-registered SIM cards were seized in the July raid of a Chinese POGO operation in Pasay.
In another report, Rappler quoted the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center as saying that 30,000 registered SIM cards were seized in a separate raid of an online gaming firm.
The police also confiscated some 7,000 registered SIM cards in a raid last June at San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, according to an Inquirer report.
In all these instances, initial investigation revealed that the SIM cards were also linked to e-wallet and online bank accounts.
That’s a whooping 65,000 registered SIM cards that should be investigated under the terms of the SIM Registration Law.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin may also need to reconsider his instruction to the Justice Secretary and the Immigration Commissioner to start deportation proceedings against the aliens during the raids. Deporting them may deprive Filipinos of seeing that they are held accountable for their possible violations of the SIM Registration Law, the Anti-Money Laundering Law, the Data Privacy Act, the Cybercrime Prevention Act and other laws.
Deeper digital forensic investigations, with authority from the court, should help authorities find out who registered the SIM cards, identity cards used, whether these were stolen or maybe registered under duress, and exactly how they were used in suspected criminal activities.
The National Telecommunications Commission should also act with dispatch on the 45,697 reports of alleged text scams as complained by the public. If the NTC and other agencies would not act, their inaction would encourage impunity by emboldening the scammers because they apparently can run away from the law.
Legitimate users should not be limited to just one SIM card. Neither should they be charged for registering more than one SIM card.
These days, many people use a variety of devices: a second phone, a tablet with a SIM slot, prepaid Wi-Fi routers, prepaid Wi-Fi hotspots and other everyday gadgets. Most phones now are dual-SIM. Parents have to register SIM cards of their children below legal age. Many businesses also use a lot of SIM-enabled devices in offices and in business operations.
Authorities should not hinder legitimate use through arbitrary limitations or the charging of unnecessary fees. They should instead run after and prosecute to the full extent of the law the syndicates who have been found to be not just in possession of tens of thousands of SIM cards, but that these were likewise used for e-money and online bank transactions.
Government should start with the 65,000 registered SIM cards confiscated in raids, and the 45,697 complaints about text-related scams. It now has an obligation to prove that SIM registration works as intended: to help identify criminals and lawbreakers, and to put some fear in their hearts.
As to the monkey photo used for registering a SIM, perhaps the government should ask court authorization to scan the photo IDs submitted for registration. Who knows, maybe the monkey photo isn’t an isolated incident.