Globe has said that it is collaborating with the government to improve efforts to combat fraud and spam messages, as well as calling for improved “threat intelligence sharing” with industry players.
Globe said it is ready to engage with other stakeholders to assist protect Filipino customers from smishing and other fraudulent activities, speaking during a meeting with industry players including telcos, banks, and online retail platforms with the National Privacy Commission (NPC) on Wednesday.
Smishing is a type of scam in which scammers use mobile text messaging to trick victims into divulging personal information. Scammers then use this information to gain access to a victim’s bank accounts.
Globe is cooperating with major universal and commercial banks, as well as e-commerce platforms such as Lazada and Shopee, to assist reduce spam, frauds, and phishing by allowing partner organizations to report bogus numbers, faked sender names, and URLs for rapid network blocking.
Globe’s systems terminate and block a large number of spammers, including those reported at www.globe.com.ph/stopspam. So far this year, the telco’s specialized cybersecurity team has successfully prevented close to 1 billion spam messages and terminated 5,670 confirmed spam numbers.
Globe will also follow the National Telecommunications Commission’s (NTC) directive to alert customers about potentially harmful text messages.
A text blast will be sent to customers:
“BABALA! Huwag maniwala sa text na diumanoy nag-aalok ng trabaho. Huwag po magbigay ng personal na impormasyon. Ito po ay isang scam.”
Customers are reminded not to react to text messages containing promotional offers, employment offers, or other unsolicited items and services, according to Globe.
“At the end of the day, we need to move very swiftly in preventing fraudulent attacks from reaching our customers, and we know we cannot do it alone. We need to improve private sector partnerships on top of what has already been a robust public sector enablement through the National Privacy Commission. Strength in numbers is key,” said Globe’s Chief Information Security Officer, Anton Bonifacio.