Globe, a leading mobile provider, introduces the National Telecommunications Commission's (NTC) publication of new recommendations designed to enhance ID verification during SIM registration.
The telecom company believes that strong cooperation and communication among important industry stakeholders, regulators, and law enforcement agencies are necessary for the SIM Registration Act to be implemented effectively because customer protection continues to be its top concern.
The validity of verification in the SIM registration procedure was called into doubt at the recent Senate hearing about the acceptance of an animal photo in place of a real person's ID.
Despite Globe's complete compliance with the SIM Registration Act's requirements, which resulted in the registration of 54M SIMs, there is still room for improvement to assist prevent online fraud and scams.
The first is having a proper system of identification for all citizens, such as the national ID. This is necessary to prevent the use of different types of government-issued identification that might have been altered or compromised. This is a crucial area that has to be aggressively pursued. We reiterate our appeal for government consultations on enhancing the implementation of the National ID and law enforcement.
Second, the current NTC recommendations aimed at confirming SIM owner identity are a positive step. While Globe will abide by the rules, further investments are required to implement a more advanced identification system. It will take some time to examine alternative technical solutions to make sure we're able to deploy one that really fulfills the particular and difficult needs of the SIM Registration statute.
Third, putting the SIM Registration Act into effect is only the first step in preventing online fraud and frauds. If the Philippines were to be free of scams, we must also have effective law enforcement and intelligence that can keep up with tech-based criminal operations. Citizens acting as middlemen and selling their registered SIMs is another problem.
"When SIM registration was implemented last year, telcos only had 15 days to design its SIM registration platform following the release of the IRR. Our capability for ID validation is also limited by the lack of access to a database where we may verify submissions. For facial or optical character recognition to work efficiently and accurately, there should be a database of facial biometrics and IDs that only government issuers possess," said Atty. Froilan Castelo, General Counsel of the Globe Group.
"We are currently working with the government to enhance our SIM registration platform, and we hope to get access to data with which we can verify documents submissions, including photo IDs," added Castelo.
"Moving forward, we are optimistic that with the recent post-validation guidelines from the NTC, we will be able to weed out those who submitted fake credentials to register, deactivate their SIMs, and report them to law enforcers for investigation," Castelo said.
Globe called on SIM users to submit only verified information and IDs in registering their SIMs as fraudulent submissions are penalized under the SIM Registration Act. Individuals who provide false information or fake IDs may face prison time of six months to 2 years, and a P300,000 fine.
For more information on SIM registration, check out their site right here.
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