MANILA -- Telecommunications giant Globe said there has been a significant drop in blocked bank-related scam and spam messages in its network in the first half of the year.

In a statement, Globe said they only blocked 4.85 million bank-related spam and scam messages from January to June, down from the 9.06 million during the same period last year.

In the second quarter of 2023 alone, there were only 779,254 blocked messages, a huge drop from the 5.1 million reported in the same period in 2022.

Globe Chief Information Security Officer Anton Bonifacio noted that their company signed a memorandum with the Bankers Association of the Philippines, and signed partnerships with some of the country's largest banks to prevent cyber fraud in the country.

Globe said it blocked 2.72 billion scam and spam messages in 2022.

• Globe says 2.72B spam, scam SMS blocked in 2022
• Globe says 554 online gambling, scam sites blocked in Q1
• PLDT, Smart block 23 million smishing-linked SMS from June 11 to 14

Globe said it has spent about $20 million to upgrade its spam and scam SMS detection and blocking system. It earlier blocked person-to-person SMS with clickable URLs from all networks.

SMS-linked spam and scams proliferated in the Philippines last year, prompting the government to enact the SIM Registration Act.

• More than 113 million SIMs registered as of July 30: NTC