“We urge the public to ignore and never reply to such messages,” said NTC Regional Director Azor Sitchon.
NTC regional legal officer Carlota Manalo said from 40 to 45 complaints are lodged monthly by her agency in Central Luzon.
“We are asked to block the number of the sender and this is done within four days via our central office,” she said, even as she admitted the NTC’s lack of capability to track down the sender.
She said that even telephone companies are reluctant to trace the source of text scams unless there is a court order to do so.
Sitchon noted the difficulty of tracking down text scammers who use prepaid cards which they eventually destroy. “This is why we support the bill now up for third reading in Congress requiring registration of pre-paid SIM cards,” he said.
Manalo cited three common types of text scams. “One is the socalled Panalo sa Raffle scam that at times ask for processing fees before a supposed raffle prize can be claimed,” she said.
“This type of scam usually name drops popular names and institutions and would even cite purported permit number from the Department of Trade and Industry,” she noted.
The second type, she said, is the “kamag-anak” request for free load. The sender declares being a relative abroad or one in distress and in need of cellphone load.
Manalo said the third is the “pasa or nakaw” load wherein the sender asks the potential victim to message back by typing a certain set of numbers purportedly to settle a billing problem or get free load. “The numbers turn out to be mechanisms to transfer load to the sender, nothing more,” she warned.
“The text scams come from 11-digit numbers,” she also noted. Sitchon said that in all these cases, the text message should be ignored. Manalo said, however, that major telecoms have telephone numbers which can receive complaints on text scams.
“For Globe, it’s 730100, for Smart 8881111 and for Sun it’s 6398000,” she said.
Sitchon noted, however, that the NTC has now required telecoms to send load confirmation prompt before sharing load is done. “So one can opt to reject or accept passing on load,” he added.
