Leaked data to text scammers likely limited 

THE NATIONAL Privacy Commission (NPC) on Wednesday hinted that the names and numbers of people were the only information used in personalized text scams, allaying fears that more data were held by scammers.   

“They want you to sign up because they want more personal information that they can use to victimize people,” commission Division Chief Michael R. Santos told an online forum in Filipino on Wednesday. 

Deputy Privacy Commissioner Leandro Angelo Y. Aguirre said smishing messages were unlikely to be sent by data aggregators.  

“The National Privacy Commission, through its Complaints and Investigation Division, has observed from the smishing reports it received, that the smishing messages appear to have been sent using specific mobile numbers registered to certain texting services,” he said. 

“As confirmed with the telecommunication companies, smishing messages which are sent using mobile numbers are possible through a phone-to-phone (P2P) transmission,” Mr. Aguirre said. “Such transmission is usually coursed through a telecommunication company’s regular network and does not pass through data aggregators.” — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave