The central bank of the Philippines, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has issued an official warning to the public, ordering them to stay vigilant of the growing text hijacking threat facing the country.
According to the 2024 Asia Scam Report from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), the Asia Pacific region saw an estimated total loss of $688.42billion over the last 12 months as a result of fraud trends such as the rise of AI-generated scam messages and the surge in social media-related fraud. In the Philippines specifically, there has been a surge in SMS-related fraud.
Text Hijacking is a modus operandi where fraudsters insert themselves into legitimate text message conversations, making their messages appear safe by blending in with other messages from a trusted source.
This increases the effectiveness of the delivery of smishing attacks as they appear to be coming from a legitimate sender. Fraudsters spoof the sender ID of financial institutions and send ‘smishing’ (SMS phishing) messages containing malicious links, aiming to gain unauthorised access to the financial accounts of their victims.
A notable method for executing text hijacking involves the use of international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) catchers. These devices broadcast a stronger signal than nearby legitimate cellular towers, tricking mobile phones within a specific geographical area into connecting to them instead of the real network. Once connected, fraudsters can then send SMS or text messages with malicious content or phishing links to achieve their objectives, potentially compromising sensitive information.
Advice from Bangko ng Pilipinas
“NEVER click links in SMS messages even if they appear to be coming from your bank, e-money provider or financial institution;
ALWAYS scrutinise the messages you receive. Remember that banks/e-money issuers will NEVER ask you to click a link sent through email or SMS to execute transactions that you did not initiate. You may go directly to mobile or internet banking facilities for any transactions with your bank/e-money issuer; and
REPORT any unusual transactions and/or activities involving your bank/e-money accounts to your bank/e-money provider immediately.”
The BSP assures the public that the BSP, in collaboration with the BSP-supervised financial institutions (BSFIs) and key stakeholders, are already taking measures to address text hijacking concerns.
The post Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Warns Public to be Vigilant as Text Hijacking on the Rise appeared first on The Fintech Times.
