Press Release
September 5, 2022

NANCY STUNNED AFTER RECEIVING ANONYMOUS SMS WITH HER NAME IN IT
...says organized crime rings may soon tap into other personal info

Senator Nancy Binay recently got the shock of her life when she received a random text message with her name in it.

"Sa totoo lang, nagulat ako--it's both an unexplained fear and a terrifying surprise. Noong una, parang okay lang at dedma since paminsan-minsan may natatanggap talaga tayong burst SMS na mga marketing promo or weather advisories.

"Then, meron nang kung anu-anong offer na trabaho o kesyo nanalo ka ng premyo. Pero nang maka-receive ako ng text message sa personal phone ko with my name, I was so shocked dahil never kong ginagamit ang personal phone ko in online transactions. Ni hindi nga naka-link sa ibang social media accounts ang number ko. So, paano nakuha ang number ko?" Binay shared.

Binay is set to file a Senate Resolution urging the Senate to investigate, in aid of legislation, the upsurge of text scams, smishing, text spams, and other malicious solicitations and unwanted text messages.

"Grabe, ibang level na dahil sobrang entrenched na ang ganitong cybercrime groups sa mga data na supposedly secured, private and confidential. Kasi, kung may personal information na na kasama sa mga text scams, it may extend to some bigger and more sophisticated scheme hanggang umabot sa kung saan ka nagtatrabaho, ano'ng schedule ng mga anak mo sa school, saan kayo regularly namamasyal, anong credit card na ginagamit mo, sino ang best friend mo, at ano ang pinag-uusapan ninyo. Nakakatakot na," Binay warned.

She said she plans to inquire on the concrete solutions being undertaken by responsible government agencies to put an end to the unrestricted intensification of the mentioned activities.

"Habang tumatagal at wala tayong aksyon na ginagawa, lalong nagiging kapanipaniwala ang mga scams at maraming tao ang maaaring mabiktima," Binay pointed out.

TRUST ISSUES

A report from Globe Telecom Inc. showed that it blocked an estimated 784 million scam and spam messages from January to July of this year. The same report showed that the telco had deactivated 14, 058 scam-linked mobile numbers and blacklisted an additional 8,973.

"Despite the passage of Republic Act 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012, the personal information of the citizens remain vulnerable due to lack of transparency and standards on the processing, handling, and storing of personal data collected by mobile applications," she said.

Binay pointed out how the data collected by the contact tracing application 'Staysafe.ph', which was utilized to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 disease, was still not in the possession of the Inter-Agency Task Force nine months after it requested the files from the mobile application developer, Multisys Technologies Corporation.

"The unabated digital scams will erode the trustworthiness of electronic commerce and may reverse our shift to a digital economy. It is the right of our people to have a safe digital ecosystem and it is the duty of the government to provide and secure such an environment," the senator added.

Meanwhile, data from PLDT and Smart Communications showed that it blocked 23 million smishing text messages, in a span of three days, from June 11 to 14 of this year.

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