A picture taken on Februrary 27 ,2015 in Lille, northern France, shows cellphone sim cards. (Photo by PHILIPPE HUGUEN /Agence France-Presse)
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� Senator Grace Poe on Saturday stressed on the need to have a law requiring the registration of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards amid reports of scam text messages send specifically to mobile phone service subscribers.
Poe, who heads the committee on public services, said the committee will be conducting a public hearing on Wednesday, to look into the latest text scams and determine how the passage of a SIM card registration bill can stop the proliferation of 鈥減ersonalized鈥� spam and scam text messages.
鈥淭hey are getting more sophisticated, adaptive and personalized in their ways with their latest targeted scam messages already containing names of mobile users,鈥� Poe said in a statement.
Aside from such schemes, Filipino users reported receiving spam text messages containing fake job offers, fake contest results, and other money-making schemes that aim to trick the unsuspecting text message receiver.
In a bid to prevent such schemes, Poe filed Senate Bill No. 99 or the 鈥淪ubscriber Identity Module Card Registration Act鈥� as the registration of SIM cards is not required in the country.
Poe said the bill 鈥減rohibits the disclosure of information obtained in the registration process, except upon a court order, written consent of the subscriber or in compliance with the Data Privacy Act.鈥�
Former privacy commissioner Raymund Liboro purported that contractors of the three major telecommunication companies in the country are among the likely sources of the personal information that were used in the 鈥減ersonalized text scam messages.鈥�
The National Privacy Commission said it is monitoring and investigating the reported 鈥減ersonalized鈥� scam text messages. 鈥� Christian Paul Dela Cruz, 黑料社 trainee
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