By: Leonard Andrei Cabalona
“Ikaw ba ‘tong nasa video?”
Seems clickbaity, right? But that is a new text scam that’s gaining attention recently.
The scheme works when an unknown number sends a message to a telco subscriber asking if he is the one appearing in a video, providing a TikTok-like link where one can watch it. Once clicked, the link leads to a phishing website, where hackers can harvest the subscriber’s data, including their e-wallet accounts.
Surprisingly, this happens when the ‘personalized’ text scheme – where messages include the recipient’s name and a link – is not yet resolved. Many social media users, including myself, still receive those types of messages from unknown numbers to this day, offering everything from a casino win to the latest iPhone version.
The government’s response to these text scams has always been similar: warning them against opening the links. But whatever methods one does to avoid them, the hackers just keep coming back, using different numbers to send the messages. Blocking those numbers is just as stressful as receiving texts from them.
To stop these text scams, public warnings are not enough.
As the owner of their franchises and frequencies, the government should compel telecommunications companies to identify numbers used in criminal activities, while strengthening their cybersecurity operations. Telcos can pull this off by establishing good customer service, where subscribers are assured that their complaints are addressed and not only sleeping in logbooks or comment sections of their social media accounts.
The telco providers, in exchange, should coordinate with the government to make their crime-busting easier. The registration aspect of the recently-signed SIM Registration Act will determine owners of particular numbers, as well as those who will use them for illegal activities. The responsibility will then be left to the telcos, where they whether or not to give additional information regarding a suspected number and the subscriber owning it.
While the move might be questioned due to data privacy issues, telcos must put safeguards to ensure the public that these details will be used only for crime prevention, such as signing and implementing agreements keeping those information confidential.
In a society dependent on technology, keeping our personal information to ourselves should be a priority, as it is needed for daily transactions. However, protecting it ourselves is not enough.
Scammers are getting smarter every day, and so should everyone.
TAGS: Text scams, social media, personalized text scheme
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