Globe draws up wish list for next administration

As the presidential campaign season kicks into high gear, industry giant Globe Telecom is hoping the next administration will prioritize the imposition of harsher penalties against online fraudsters and the “rational” implementation of the SIM Card Registration Act.

While praising the current government’s direction to cut regulatory bottlenecks in the rollout of telco infrastructure, Globe CEO Ernest Cu called on regulators and lawmakers to address gaps in the country’s cybercrime law.

Cu said the law lacked teeth when it came to prosecuting criminals behind phishing scams, which are designed to steal the personal data of victims, oftentimes to compromise their financial accounts.

This gained recent national attention after unwitting mobile subscribers received a barrage of fake job offers that turned out to be an elaborate phishing ruse operated by a crime syndicate.

“As financial inclusion via digital means continues to propagate, more and more of these phishing scams are coming to light,” Cu told reporters during a briefing on Thursday.

“We would like to strengthen the law, particularly with regard to phishing and phishing site creation,” Cu added.

Apart from jailing phishing scam masterminds, Cu said the law should also punish individuals who act as “mule accounts” and knowingly facilitate the transfer of stolen money.

Cu also raised concerns on the SIM Card Registration Act, explaining this would be difficult to implement without a robust national ID system. Congress ratified the proposed law last week and transmitted the draft to Malacañang for President Duterte to sign.

“As you know, in this country, we still lack reliable ID systems. What we don’t want is to be overly dependent into thinking that the silver bullet of registration will solve all fraud, terrorism and crime-related identification via SIM registration,” Cu said.

He added the government should hasten the integration of applications into the national ID system that would strengthen verification after SIM registration is implemented.

Lawmakers said the proposed legislation, which will require subscribers to register their SIM cards 180 days from effectivity, would curb text scams and terrorism.