As the country has to deal with the surge of scammers and cybercrime incidents, PLDT and Smart revealed their latest efforts towards thwarting them. This includes PLDT blocking at least 15,000 suspicious mobile numbers and at least 60 web domains that are directly involved with the job offering SMS scam. To recap, this scam involves SMS phishing that targets job seekers who are desperately on the lookout for earning opportunities.

In the findings of the telco giant’s Cyber Security Operations Group (CSOG),  a monthly average of 758 scamming sites have been blocked by CSOG across all sources. These include SMS, spam emails received by employees, phishing sites reported by banks, and information acquired from threat intelligence operations. PLDT CSOG also notes that there was a three-fold increase from June this year, with the month of November posting the highest number of spam and phishing activities of 600 mobile numbers blocked on a daily average.

PLDT CSOG Chief Security Officer Angel Redoble explained that those involved in the job offering SMS scam are “potentially reflective of a global organized syndicate,” as the scheme uses sites for fraudulent transactions. “The safety of our subscribers remains our highest priority. We, at PLDT and Smart, will ensure that they are protected from becoming victims to this targeted and well-organized scam campaign from end-to-end,” Redoble adds.

PLDT CSOG adds that the group maintains its operations 24/7 as scammers devised more complex tactics in trying to victimize people, on top of working closely with government agencies like the NTC, DTI, and NPC.