MANILA -- The chief of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) said on Tuesday that the government is considering limiting the number of SIM cards an individual can own in a bid to further deter scammers.

The proposal was made as text scams continue to proliferate in the Philippines despite the implementation of the SIM Card Registration law.

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Undersecretary Alexander Ramos said he is looking at a maximum of four to five SIMs per person as he believes having too many is "abnormal."

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But he said telco players are proposing a maximum of 10 sim cards per person as the "reasonable" option.

“Ang prepaid card users natin, ang average is maximum two cellphones, apat na SIM cards. That’s why there is the postpaid, prepaid market diba? Ang prepaid, ito yung ayaw gumastos ng malaki at hindi maka-afford," Ramos noted.

(Our prepaid card users have an average of two phones, or 4 SIM cards. That's why there is a postpaid and prepaid market, right? Prepaid is for those who don't want to spend a lot because they can't afford it.)

"If you have one person, nagre-register ng more than 10 SIM cards, so magkano na yun (who registered more than 10 SIM cards, how much is that)? That’s against the logic of it,” he said.

Ramos said the CICC is working with the National Telecommunications Commission on the proposal. They aim to be able to add the restriction to the implementing rules and regulations of the SIM Card Registration Act within the next few months.

Meanwhile, Ramos said they will be looking into individuals who made bulk SIM registrations. He noted that they were even able to detect one user who registered 600 SIM cards.

“They’re under study right now. Kasi pag ang numbers registered to that person were affected in the scams, automatic yun, mata-tag na namin sila— uy, sindikato ‘to,” he said.

(If numbers registered to those persons were affected in the scams, we'll automatically tag them as part of a syndicate.)

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Ramos also encouraged the public to report incidents of scamming and phishing to the CICC’s hotline number 1326 so that they can act on them.

So far, he said they have already received 3,000 complaints.

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“Alam natin araw-araw ang average, tumataas. Bakit konti lang nagre-report (We know the average is rising every day. But why are only a few people reporting)? So how can we create the correct strategy if the public will not participate? So we are enjoining everybody to please report para we will have the right numbers, the right strategy for this,” he added.

Meanwhile, Globe Telecom said it will cooperate with authorities to track down persons trying to go around the SIM Registration Act to commit cybercrimes.

The company's counsel, Froilan Castelo, said it is waiting on word from government on how it can help with raids that may lead to the arrest of criminals breaking cybercrime laws.

The telco giant also advised the public against falling for requests to bulk register SIM cards under their names for a fee.

"Only criminals will make you do this, and you will end up in trouble," said Globe Group General Counsel Froilan Castelo.

Out of the total 168 million SIMs in the country, more than 113 million were able to register as of July 30, 2023.

All newly purchased SIMs today will be registered upon purchase.

• More than 113 million SIMs registered as of July 30: NTC