Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Dexter Barro II/MANILA BULLETIN)

Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers is seeking amendments to certain provisions of the SIM Card Registration Act to put an end to various online scamming schemes linked to bulk buying of prepaid SIM (subscriber identity module) cards.

In a statement on Sunday, July 28, Barbers said revisions to the law could help address the “unabated societal problem” of organized crime groups buying huge staches of SIM cards to victimize cell phone users of their money and property. 

“To minimize or stop online scamming and illegal transactions that victimizes unsuspecting victims, we should amend and add more teeth to the SIM Card Law to put a stop and/or make obsolete those various scamming schemes,” he said.

Barbers, chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, issued this appeal following the report that several raided Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) were found to have stashed thousands of recently procured SIM cards. 

He noted that during raids conducted in POGO facilities in Bamban and Porac towns in Pampanga, more than P50,000 worth of unused SIM cards were recovered.

“And we all know too well that these POGO operators and workers won’t use them for good intentions,” he added.

Embodied under Republic Act (RA) No. 11934, the SIM Card Registration Act—commonly referred to as the SIM Card Law—was enacted to help curb the malicious use of SIM cards that may endanger people’s lives, damage property, pose hazards to public order, and even threaten the security of countries.

Despite its passage, criminals have managed to run circles around the law and continue their scamming operations.

“The law was intended to curb cybercriminal activities, to address issues related to trolling, hate speech and online disinformation. But what we are seeing and witnessing today is that online scamming activities continuous and remain unabated,” Barbers said.

Under the law’s implementing rules and regulations, post-paid subscribers are considered to already be registered with telecommunications companies. Customers would then only need to confirm the existing details they already have with the telco service.

On the other hand, pre-paid subscribers are required to undergo registration through an online portal, with the subscriber providing a photo and other personal details to the telco company.

“What the organized scamming syndicates do is to buy in bulk prepaid SIM cards because they can always provide fake or fraudulent details of their phone users. And telcos’ have no capability or system to monitor and catch these scammers who are using a subscriber’s altered postpaid SIM IDs,” Barbers explained.

The veteran lawmaker pointed out that various online scamming schemes continue to victimize Filipinos, such as phishing, SIM Swap scams, impersonation scams, investment scams, blackmail scams, and grandparent scam, among others.

“The scamming techniques involves various psychological manipulations aimed at persuading the client-victims to make hasty, irrational and unsafe decisions to part with their personal identities, property or money to the suspects,” he said. 

According to Barbers, peddlers of illegal drugs are also using post-paid SIM cards to hide their real identities and avoid detection by posting and selling their “coded illegal wares" on social media platforms.