Mobile phone operator Smart Communications said on Tuesday that it’s modifying its short messaging system (SMS)-based promos to deter fraudsters from dragging the company's name in text-based scams victimizing Filipinos in the country and abroad.
Apart from with print advertising in local newspapers, Smart said it would implement a "call out" policy to prevent or reduce text-based scams victimizing Filipino subscribers, said Ramon Isberto, Smart head of public affairs, in an interview.

Smart's call out policy involves the company making calls to promo winners. "If someone tries to mimic this, it would become an expensive activity. Text scams proliferate because it is cheap to send fraudulent text message to victims," Isberto said.

Smart is using a special number, 7777, to let people know they’re receiving legitimate calls from the company, Isberto said. At the same time, the operator will mail written notification to promo winners to inform them about their winnings.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, National Bureau of Investigation, Anti-Money Laundering Council, and other government agencies disclosed last week that text scams targeting overseas Filipino workers have increased lately.

The National Telecommunications Commission said that it was pushing for a four-digit code for text-based promos, an idea first broached by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. for its own promo. This would also allow subscribers to determine the legitimacy of the text-based promos.

Meanwhile Smart is pushing more educational and preventive programs against text scams.

"We've done a lot of changes to reduce this problem," Isberto said, acknowledging that it has been a persistent problem hard to pin down.

A Victim’s Tale

Lydia dela Torre, 51, a resident of La Paz, Iloilo was a recent victim of text scams.

Last week, she wept as she recalled her painful ordeal to local reporters, wherein she was duped into spending her hard-earned money after falling prey to a text-based scam perpetrated by suspected crimel syndicates in the Philippines.

Dela Torre was at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas last week to claim the 950,000 pesos she supposedly won in a raffle. She didn’t know that she was the latest victim of a text scam, which trick recipients into giving away their money in exchange for information on how to claim their winnings in a supposed raffle draw by a certain government agency or foundation.

In this case, Dela Torre said a certain lawyer William Gomez sent her a text message claiming she won second prize in a raffle drawn last June 9. She immediately called the sender of the text message and was instructed to send 14 PIN codes of 300-peso worth of pre-paid card credits to a certain mobile number. After doing so, she was asked to go to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank) to claim her prize, only to find out that she had been duped.