PLDT, Smart Back Pbbm Cybersecurity Plan, Intensify Efforts Against Cybercrimes Including Scams, Fraud

PLDT and its wireless unit, Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) are working closely with government regulators to further protect customers from text scams and other fraudulent activities. This is in line with the Philippine government’s efforts to strengthen the security and resilience of the country’s cyberspace under the National Cybersecurity Plan 2023-2038, as articulated by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in his State of the Nation Address 2024.

“Consistent with our multi-stakeholder campaign against SMShing and similar deceitful schemes, PLDT and Smart are coordinating with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to clamp down on the sale of pre-registered SIM cards,” said John Y. Palanca, SVP and Head of Sales and Development at PLDT and Smart.

Smart meets with its distributors and retailers regularly and conducts necessary training sessions to reinforce the SIM Registration Act (SRA). Smart has also been sending advisories and text blasts to distributors, retailers, and other trade partners to underscore that selling pre-registered SIMs is against the law.

Smart also cautions customers against buying pre-registered SIMs. Again, Smart reiterates that it does not sell pre-registered SIMs. Customers are encouraged to buy SIMs from authorized Smart dealers only for their protection.

To help crack down on SIMs being used in text scams, Smart continues to improve existing reporting mechanisms to purge its network of mobile numbers being used in criminal activities. While enhancing its cybersecurity solutions, it has also improved internal processes to ensure that distributed SIMs comply with the regulations.

Before these efforts, Smart had strengthened SIM registration controls to weed out non-conforming registrants, in compliance with what the NTC had required all telcos to implement back on December 18, 2023. Smart has adopted “live selfie” and liveness checks, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and facial recognition and matching. Smart has also disabled the uploading of stock selfies. It has, likewise, improved verification measures for the activation of SIMs.

“On top of this active collaboration with their regulators, PLDT and Smart are upgrading cybersecurity solutions to boost the blocking of malicious text messages. We are also improving reporting platforms to make it easier for employees and the public to submit screenshots and other information related to SMShing,” said Jojo G. Gendrano, SVP and Chief Information Security Officer at PLDT and Smart.

The PLDT group also actively collaborates with law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute parties behind text scams and other financial crimes. It continues to engage its peers in the industry, as well as allies from the public and private sectors, to implement impacting programs that will put an end to SMShing and other fraudulent activities.

If you receive suspicious messages or calls, please report them to cybersecurityincidents@smart.com.ph and cybersecurityincidents@pldt.com.ph or to Smart’s verified and official social media pages - Smart Communications on Facebook and @SmartCares on X - or call our hotline *888.