In the first quarter of 2023, the number of online gambling, smishing and phishing sites that Globe Telecom Inc. blocked rose by 41.3 percent to 554, from 392 in the same period last year. Globe’s cybersecurity team has been stepping up measures to fend off spam and online scams, particularly bank phishing. Phishing is a common type of cyber attack where criminals impersonate an organization or individual through a legitimate-looking email or text message containing links to fraudulent websites to trick people into divulging sensitive information or downloading harmful software.
A variation of phishing, known as smishing, operates similarly but is limited to mobile phone SMS messages.
From January to March this year, Globe foiled more attempts to scam depositors after it tied up with banks and financial institutions to fight online fraud. The number of malicious bank-related SMS messages blocked by Globe increased by 2.7 percent to 4.07 million during the first quarter of 2023 from 3.97 million in the same period last year. From January 2022 to January 2023, Globe blocked 85 million bank-related spam and scam messages amid its strengthened crackdown against fraudsters.
This was part of the record-high 3 billion scam and spam messages it has filtered out in one year. "We do not tolerate illegal and fraudulent activities that compromise the safety and security of our customers " says Globe Chief Information Security Officer Anton Bonifacio. "Our goal is to provide a trusted and secure digital platform that our customers can rely on.”
To combat the proliferation of online fraud and other illegal activities, Globe invested substantially in developing tools and launching channels that facilitate reporting within and outside the company.
The telco has allocated approximately $20 million to enhance its detection and blocking system for spam and scam SMS.
With its Security Operations Center operating 24/7, Globe filters out unwanted messages originating from domestic and international sources, including app-to-person and person-to-person SMS.
Globe continues to report malicious links that promote online gambling to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and law enforcement agencies for immediate action.