Scam alert raised on extended SIM registration days

No matter whether or not authorities determine to prolong the period for Subscriber Id Module (SIM) registration, there ought to be no letup in the crackdown on scammers, whose “work” carries on to manifest in the inbox of a lot of subscribers, the head of the Senate community providers committee reported at the weekend.

Sen. Grace L. Poe exhorted authorities to clamp down on mobile telephone scammers without the need of letup as the registration of SIM proceeds.

Poe, principal writer of the SIM Registration regulation or Republic Act (RA) 11934, reported cons via textual content nonetheless show up in the inbox of subscribers, such as recent messages expressing their on the net bank account has been blocked.

“There are nonetheless SIM farms out there and spoofing resources. Sinister minds will by no means halt hatching methods of stealing details and duping people,” Poe said.

The Department of Information and facts and Communications Know-how (DICT) recently documented a reduction in spam messages, but Poe warned, “we ought to never ever underestimate the lawbreakers.”

She urged the DICT and telecommunications companies to pull out all the stops to make the general public register their SIM number on or ahead of the April 26, 2023 deadline.

According to the DICT, all-around 45.8 million or 27.12 % of the 169 million SIMs are in use nationwide.

RA 11934 demands all present subscribers to enlist their cell figures with their support network.

When all SIMs have been registered, the government can now effortlessly monitor electronic fraud and make wrongdoers accountable.

The DICT could decide to lengthen the period of enlistment for 120 days a lot more. Unregistered SIM cards would be deactivated.

According to Poe, although the regulation makes it possible for for an extension, this need to be made use of to additional move up the SIM registration marketing campaign.

“With the legislation, we assume all fraudulent and unwelcome textual content messages to die a pure demise. But we ought to not enable our guard down,” Poe said.

“The extension interval, if so determined by the DICT, will be for the legitimate subscribers to register and stay clear of disruption in their cellular phone providers. This should not increase the heydays of the scammers,” Poe included.