Globe claims major win vs text messaging scams

Globe Telecom said it has slashed the rate of scam text messages within its network.

The telco giant touted the success of an anti-spam solution and blocking mechanism that was implemented in 2014. Since then, spam messages, which include text scams, have dropped by over 94 percent.

Specifically, from 2.9 million daily spam traffic in 2016, the number of incidences hit 182,000 last year, Globe said. It added it blocked over 400 million spam text messages for 2017 alone.

“We understand the problems that could arise from these text messaging scams. This is why we have strengthened our campaign for a spam-free experience for all our customers,” Anton Bonifacio, Globe chief information security officer, said in a statement.

“We have been working hard to stop many fraud attempts, and we have been successful in our goal. We will be constantly upgrading and improving our blocking and filtering mechanism to keep our network from these unwanted messages,” he added.

According to Globe, its anti-spam platform is a combination of hardware and software solutions. It is a fully automated system that can filter up to a billion text messages per day.

“Text spamming is an industry-wide issue, and we acknowledge that Globe Telecom’s anti-spam campaign will not be as effective without the help of our customers. We encourage our customers to be vigilant and report any text scam they receive,” Bonifacio noted in the statement.

Customers can file their complaints at www.globe.com.ph/stopspam whenever they receive scam messages. Subscribers should provide details of the spam and scam messages they received on their mobile devices. Once Globe has verified that the numbers have been constant sources of spam messages, it will disconnect these numbers from service.

The National Telecommunications has issued several public warnings about text scammers. Some subscribers, nonetheless, fall prey to such tactics.

Text scams take many forms and mainly revolve around convincing subscribers to send them prepaid credits.

One of those scams, as outlined by the NTC last year, involved making subscribers give up credits in order to win bogus raffle prizes from reputable organizations, such as the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. or large charities such as GMA Kapuso Foundation.