GCash blocks 900,000 fraudulent accounts in first quarter

Financial application GCash, operated by G-Xchange Inc., on Tuesday said it has blocked some 900,000 accounts involved in fraudulent activities.

GCash said the accounts were blocked in the first three months of the year, through joint efforts with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

“It is crucial that we work together to protect the platform against fraud,” GCash president and chief executive officer Martha Sazon said in an emailed statement.

“As we continue to bolster our security system, we are also counting on the support of our customers and ask that they be vigilant against online scam,” she continued.

GCash also called on users not to share their MPIN or one-time passwords, only do related activities within the application, exercise caution on who they transact with, and only go to official channels.

Just last month, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) called on the public to avail of all security features for online transactions, in line with efforts to avoid fraudulent activities and boost cyber security.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno in March flagged risks on digital transactions, particularly involving non-fungible tokens after the $600-million theft of digital tokens from a digital ledger used by players of popular online game Axie Infinity.

The BSP also last year expressed its support for the Financial Accounts Regulation Act, which recognizes the need to protect the public from cybercriminals and syndicates who target bank accounts and e-wallets.—AOL, GMA News