GCash investigating supposed LandBank phishing scam, warns of legal action

GCash, operated by Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt), on Tuesday said it is looking into reports of e-wallets supposedly at the receiving end of stolen money from accounts of teachers with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank).

Chief Corporate Communications officer Chito Maniago warned that the firm is prepared to take action against accounts in violation of regulations.

“We are currently investigating the issue and since our operations are fully automated and traceable, we are ready to take appropriate action against accounts that have received illicit funds,” he said in an emailed statement.

GCash noted that under the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2021, those found guilty of “money mule” scams can face up to seven years of imprisonment and a fine of P3 million.

The statement was released after the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition said it received reports claiming that teachers lost as much as P121,000 each from their LandBank accounts, which were then transferred to accounts in other financial institutions such as GCash.

GCash has since called on users to be vigilant of phishing messages or suspicious calls which may dupe them into releasing sensitive data about their GCash accounts.

“We will never ask for your MPIN (mobile pin) or OTP (one-time passwords), nor will we ask you to share it with anyone. Account safety and security is a shared responsibility between GCash and its users,” Maniago said.

“We appeal to our customers and the general public to always practice digital diligence and be wary of people posing as financial institutions as well as websites, messages, or links asking users of sensitive information,” he added.

The Department of Education earlier said it has yet to receive formal incident reports on the issue, but it is working with its field offices to validate such claims.

For its part, LandBank denied that its systems were hacked, and clarified that the supposed unauthorized transactions involving the accounts of two teachers were “isolated cases” of phishing schemes. —KBK, GMA News