Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), the cellular arm of PLDT, has repeated its support for the government’s consumer protection programs, which include measures such as required SIM card registration.
This follows the recent ratification by a House subcommittee of consolidated legislation requiring the registration of prepaid and postpaid SIM cards, particularly to combat mobile phone-aided illicit acts such as text fraud.
“Consumer online protection has always been one of Smart’s advocacies. Safeguarding our customers against fraud is part of our commitment to ensure leveled-up customer experience,” said Alfredo S. Panlilio, PLDT Inc and Smart Communications President and CEO.
“We reiterate our readiness to work hand-in-hand with the government, especially in protecting Filipino consumers. We also welcome any opportunity to support the legislative process and contribute to the crafting of the bill’s implementing rules and regulations,” he added.
Smart and its parent company, PLDT, have aggressively collaborated with the government and regulators to protect customers.
With the current uptick in smishing attacks, Smart has stepped up its efforts to combat deceptive text messages aimed to deceive consumers. Smart has prohibited Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) related to these criminal operations in addition to banning SIMs that send’smishing’ messages.
Through their Cybersecurity Operations Group, PLDT and Smart are actively fortifying and ensuring the resiliency and sustainability of their cybersecurity systems—a key component of the PLDT group’s broader program to further elevate the quality of customer experience by protecting customers from cyber threats.
PLDT and Smart will invest nearly $3 billion in cybersecurity infrastructure by 2021 to defend the public from growing cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and other online criminal activities.
PLDT and Smart have also launched regular information dissemination and customer education campaigns to help users spot red flags that indicate scams and fraud.
