MANILA - Globe Telecom on Tuesday said it blocked a total of 142,575 smishing messages in February and March this year as it continuously filters and detects fraud activities.

The telco said it is strengthening its tools to increase detection and blocking capabilities against illegal SMS and web blaster devices.

The firm is also working with the government and stakeholders in threat intelligence sharing initiatives and awareness campaigns, Globe Chief Information Security Officer Anton Bonifacio said.

“Smishing occurs mainly through mobile text messaging, in which scammers attempt to mislead victims into giving away their personal data. Scammers then use this data to take over a victim’s financial accounts,” Bonifacio said.

It said it has blocked a total of 1.15 billion scam and spam messages in 2021, as well as around 7,000 mobile numbers linked to scammers and 2,000 unofficial social media accounts and phishing sites.

• Globe says blocks over 1 billion spam messages in 2021
• NTC orders telcos to warn public against job text scams

The National Telecommunications Commission over the weekend ordered DITO Telecommunity, Globe Telecom, and Smart to warn the public against job text scams by sending message blasts from May 28 until June 4.

This was after text scams offering jobs had once again proliferated.

The NTC ordered the telcos to submit a compliance report on or before June 8.

• Scammed: This single mother responded to a job offer she got via SMS—this is what happened

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