Globe Telecom Inc. has begun temporarily barring all text messages containing URLs or website links from both Prepaid and Postpaid phones in an effort to combat spammers and scammers.
The telco made the announcement on Friday, September 30, in response to an increase in reports of scam and spam messages, including SMS from unknown numbers bearing users’ full identities.
Globe’s new policy, implemented this week, will prevent the delivery of person-to-person text messages from all networks that contain clickable links.
“Before implementing this measure, what we were doing was blocking access to malicious links in text messages to help protect customers,” according to Globe Chief Information Security Officer Anton Bonifacio.
“This time around, we’re blocking the actual message. If the SMS has a link of any kind, we are not going to deliver it, period. This is necessary to protect our customers,” he maintained.
Such SMS blocking will be enforced until the SIM Registration Bill is passed and implemented, which was agreed by both Houses of Congress on Wednesday, September 28, and is scheduled to be sent to the President for signature.
“We are taking this measure for the security of our 92 million customers at Globe and 66 million more using GCash as we note how the modus operandi of fraudsters are becoming even more sophisticated,” says Bonifacio.
“We hope this will make a major dent on various spam and scam SMS rackets,” he added.
“This major step reflects our commitment to the country’s economic recovery by ensuring that the accelerated digital adoption does not expose customers to worsening cyberthreats.”
Globe has increased its efforts to combat fraud and spam messages, banning 784 million scam and spam messages from January to July of this year.
During the same time period, the telco deleted 14,058 scam-related mobile numbers and blacklisted 8,973 more through a 24/7 Security Operations Center.
Globe has so far spent $20 million, or around P1.1 billion, in capital expenditures to improve its capabilities in detecting and blocking scam and spam messages from both international and domestic sources, including app-to-person and person-to-person SMS.