Smart blocks 13 million smishing messages

MANILA, Philippines — Wireless leader Smart Communications Inc. prevented more than 13 million attempts to dupe its subscribers in the first quarter of the year, warning against the rising number of hijack profiles.

Apart from this, Smart also blacklisted nearly 200,000 SIMs involved in malicious activities, as the telco improved its coordination with authorities in preventing digital fraud.

Smart senior vice president and chief information security officer Joseph Ian Gendrano said the company is stepping up its fraud detection as cases of hijack profiles are on the rise.

A hijack profile happens when a hacker gains access to a victim’s social media account. Typically, the victim is locked out of his own account, and the hacker then reaches out to social media contacts to ask for money, usually under the guise of sickness.?

Gendrano said hackers gain access to social media accounts through phishing. As such, he asked customers to be cautious in clicking on e-mails, links and texts from unknown persons.

Further, Gendrano reminded subscribers that phishing messages employ low-quality photos and wrong grammar in their attempt to emulate legitimate institutions like banks and the government.

Also, Gendrano advised against logging in personal credentials on unfamiliar websites, warning that hackers are skilled in creating fake channels that may appear legitimate on first look.

“Data is the new oil. Cyber criminals steal personal information to defraud or use your identity to victimize people close to you. Guard your data,” Gendrano said.

Meanwhile, connectivity provider Globe Telecom Inc. reported a significant drop in the number of spam texts that it blocked in the first quarter. All in all, Globe blocked 362.8 million attempts during the period, down by 67 percent from a year ago.

Globe also observed a 74 percent decline in the number of bank-related scams that it blocked to 1.04 million, from 4.07 million.

The telco received 44 percent less customer reports on spam messages in its Stop Spam portal.

Globe chief information security officer Anton Bonifacio believes that the decline in the volume of blocked spams shows that the telco is succeeding in minimizing