Panahon na upang repasuhin ang SIM Card Law matapos itong mabutasan ng mga sindikato para maipagpatuloy ang kanilang mga iligal na gawain, ayon kay Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers.

Aniya, libu-libong SIM card na pinaniniwalaang ginagamit sa panloloko ang narekober sa mga ni-raid na illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO).

“What the organized scamming syndicates do is to buy in bulk prepaid SIM cards because they can always provide fake or fraudulent details of their phone users. And telco’s have no capability or system to monitor and catch these scammers who are using a subscriber’s altered SIM IDs,” pahayag ni Barbers.

“During the raids recently conducted by PAOCC (Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission) agents in POGO facilities in Bamban and Porac towns in Pampanga, they recovered more than P50,000 unused SIM cards. And we all know too well that these POGO operators and workers won’t use them for good intentions,” dagdag pa niya.

Iginiit ni Barbers na ang SIM Card Law ay ginawa upang sugpuin ang mga cybercriminal activities, ngunit tila hindi pa rin ito sapat upang tuluyang mapigilan ang mga naturang iligal na gawain.

Ayon sa batas, ang mga postpaid subscriber numbers ay awtomatikong rehistrado sa mga telecommunication companies, habang ang mga prepaid SIM cards ay kailangang irehistro ng mga gumagamit sa online portal ng mga telco.

Sinabi ni Barbers na iba’t ibang online scamming scheme na rin ang ginagamit sa bansa gaya ng phishing, ATM skimming, identity theft, online shopping, lottery scam, crowdfunding scams, romance scams, advance fee fraud, fake websites, SIM swap scams, SMS phishing, blackmail scams, at credit card scams.

“The scamming techniques involves various psychological manipulations aimed at persuading the client-victims to make a hasty, irrational and unsafe decisions to part with their personal identities, property or money to the suspects,” saad pa niya.

Ayon kay Barbers, mayroon ding mga drug pusher na nagpapatuloy sa paggamit ng mga SIM card sa kanilang mga transaksyon.

“To minimize or stop online scamming and illegal transactions that victimizes unsuspecting victims, we should amend and add more teeth to the SIM Card Law to put a stop and/or make obsolete those various scamming schemes.”