SNAFUS involving digital payment operators prompted lawmakers from both Houses of Congress to call for inquiries.
Last Wednesday, the Senate announced that probers from its Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies would mount a separate inquiry into recent spate of bank-related scams.
Acting on Senate Resolution (SR) 589, Senator Mark A. Villar is poised to lead the Senate Committee probe into the reported fraudulent bank transactions.
Intended to assess the need to craft remedial legislation, Senate probers are expected to verify and move for tougher safeguards needed to block dubious bank deals.
The inquiry is also meant to assess if the mechanisms put in place by banks to prevent and detect fraud are enough; and if they carry out sufficient due diligence in order to protect the interest of their clients and the general public.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has said that in the years 2020 and 2021, it received in all 42,456 complaints from consumers and victims of fraud in those two pandemic years.
Nearly half (45.2 percent) of complaints in 2021 pertained to Internet banking and mobile banking account. Topping the cases of online fraud concerns are phishing and identity theft.
The BSP also reported that from 2019 till 2021, at least 2-billion pesos worth of financial transactions were the subject of complaints and involved in hacking and phishing.
Among the most frequent victims were senior citizens, teachers and businessmen.
SIM Card Act flagged
A resolution on the issue is forthcoming in the Lower House as Gabriela Partylist Rep. Arlene D. Brosas said she would file such to investigate a series of online scams and how digital banking applications are addressing these issues.
Brosas issued a statement as she urged GCash-payment platform-operator G-XChange Inc. to return funds some users said were hacked from their accounts and to strengthen the data-protection mechanisms of the Globe Telecom Inc. subsidiary.
Recently, GCash users have reported problems—including unauthorized fund deductions—with the popular digital payments app.
“GCash should be held accountable for this possible data breach. This caused a huge inconvenience and compromised the data of millions of users across the country,” Brosas said.
“Under their custody are millions of pesos from its users, therefore, the highest security standards must be intact. If it’s this easy for scammers and hackers to get in, it’s also easy to steal people’s hard-earned money,” she added.
The lawmakers also added that despite the implementation of the controversial SIM Card Registration law (Republic Act 11934), such cases of data hacking continue to proliferate.
“This is proof that the SIM Card Registration Act has provided no safeguards against data hackers,” Brosas said.
Last Monday, the House of Representatives endorsed for Senate approval the proposed Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act to protect all persons from various cybercrime schemes by regulating the use of bank accounts and electronic-wallets.
House Bill 7393, which seeks to prohibit and punish financial crimes such as acting as money mule, performing social engineering schemes and committing economic sabotage.