Globe now uses new comprehensive tool to block unwanted spams

Globe Telecom has stepped up its anti-spam/scam campaign, utilizing a more comprehensive and fully automated mechanism to rid its network of unwanted and unsolicited text messages, bringing the daily average of blocked messages from 17,000 to 300,000. 

The new mechanism involves setting up a new hardware and software solution with complex anti-spam algorithms, with a capacity that can filter up to 1 billion SMS a day. The establishment of the new platform was undertaken in partnership with Xura, a US-based technology company that specializes in digital services addressing network vulnerabilities such as transmittal of spam and scam messages.  Project cost is estimated at around $4 million. 

 “The establishment of a new mechanism to block the transmittal of these messages brings us a step closer to having a spam-free network. Globe will never allow the use of its network by individuals who want to take advantage of our customers. As Globe steps up its campaign to purge its network of spam and scam messages, we expect this number to increase further moving forward,” said Anton Bonifacio, Globe Chief Information Security Officer. The new mechanism allows the telecommunications provider to continuously optimize and expand the reach of its anti-spam/scam campaign, he added.

According to Bonifacio, the new mechanism will also address election-related spam messages ahead of national and local elections in May of this year. He added the new mechanism now covers majority of the company’s postpaid and prepaid customers totaling 53 million at the end of 2015.

To keep its customers from receiving spam and scam messages, Globe operationalized in September 2014 an automated filtering functionality that reduced the number of such messages going through the Globe network.  At the end of 2015, Globe blocked close to 37 million of spam and scam text messages. The number of spam/scam text messages blocked by the mechanism averaged around 17,000 day in the last quarter of 2015, reaching a peak of around 200,000 in July last year. 

Such mechanism has since been upgraded and expanded to effectively prevent transmittal of spam and scam messages. By design, the filtering mechanism can be reconfigured to address the kind of spam and scam messages that goes through the Globe network. Since the new mechanism was put in place early February, the number of spam and scam messages blocked from the network averages 300,000.

Aside from blocking spam and scam messages from going through the Globe network, the telecommunications provider also has disconnected from service more than 30,000 prepaid numbers found to be consistent source of spam and scam text messages.

The numbers blocked from the Globe network were subject of complaints reported through the http://www.globe.com.ph/stopspam where customers are simply required to provide all the details of spam and scam messages they received on their mobile devices. Numbers that are reported to be a constant source of spam messages are then disconnected from service.