BAD actors, many foreign-funded, have so far amassed “millions of dollars” from Filipino victims who fell prey to the text scams of late, an official from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said on Tuesday.
During a spot interview, Cybercrime Investigation and Coordination Center (CICC) Deputy Executive Director Mary Rose E. Magsaysay confirmed that cybercriminals have been able to monetize the text scams in the Philippines, and that the figures are “big—it’s in the millions of dollars.”
She said the CICC has confirmed that the text scams are foreign-funded.
“But there are local and international collaborations,” she said.
Her agency, she noted, has started the ball rolling for prosecution, but so far, none have been arrested for the scams.
Over the last few months, Filipinos have been complaining of increased spam messages bearing their full names or monickers they use for different apps, giving rise to widespread concern, even among lawmakers who received such messages, that certain entities with access to a huge database have been selling personal data.
The recent wave of scammers promise unknowing victims of jobs or money in exchange for personal and financial data. Another form of text scams involve online gambling deals. Some senior citizens who were also addressed by their names, reported getting notices of “allowance” for the elderly, and were advised to click on to a certain “link” to enroll in the aid program.
To combat these scams, telcos have been consistently updating their policies. Some even went as far as removing the links on SMS to increase their subscribers’ cyber hygiene and security.
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has also ordered all telcos to “block or deactivate” links from malicious sites identified by government and law enforcement agencies.
