Senator Grace Poe on Friday, April 4 said the sudden increase in scam calls during the first quarter of the year is disturbing, given the enactment into law of the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration law and the ban on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).

Poe made the assessment following a report by anti-scam application Whoscall saying that scam calls in the Philippines has increased by 74.32 percent in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the previous quarter.

Gogolook, Whoscall app developer and the private sector partner of the government’s Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), expressed belief the trend clearly demonstrates a shift in scammers’ tactics.

“The dramatic increase in scam calls in the first quarter of the year is disturbing, given the SIM Registration law and the ban on POGOs,” said Poe.

“Executed at a massive scale and with high precision, voice phishing or vishing attacks prey on our unsuspecting kababayans (citizens) that result in identity theft and financial losses,” she lamented.

“While not a silver bullet to the scamming menace, the law that we passed can go a long way in fighting cybercrimes,” she said.

Poe said the SIM Registration Law has institutionalized stricter measures on SIM use and legal basis for penalizing its misuse.

“By this time, we hope wrongdoers are already feeling the mettle of the law and unsettling those hatching vile scamming plans,” she said.

“Scammers should be tried in court and punished. If no one is held accountable, perpetrators will be emboldened to continue with their illegal activities,” she pointed out.

With this, Poe urged the government, relevant agencies and telecommunication companies (telcos) and other stakeholders to continuously come up with innovative solutions to tackle call and text scams.

“Eliminating scams or at least paring them down to a minimum will require being smarter than the scammer,” she stressed.