Public warned vs fake transaction notices

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has cautioned the public against fake unauthorized transaction notices as electronic fund transfers hit record levels ahead of the Christmas holidays.

In an advisory, the regulator said the fake text messages contain a notice of an unauthorized transaction, a notice that a scammer has accessed your account, a request for your one-time password (OTP) and an instruction to click a link where you can update your information.

“Your bank or e-money provider will not text, call, or e-mail you to notify you of an unauthorized transaction, ask for your OTP, or update your information. Do not share your OTP and do not click the link,” the BSP said.

The central bank urged the recipients to immediately contact their banks or e-money providers through their official channels if their accounts, credit cards, e-wallets, or personal information have been compromised.

According to the BSP, the scammers can be reported to the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group Complaint Action Center.

Likewise, clients were also told to send a message to the BSP if their banks and financial institutions fail to address their concerns.

Latest data from the BSP showed that the amount of electronic fund transfers via PESONet and InstaPay jumped by 31 percent to P10.39 trillion from January to October   versus last year’s P7.95 trillion.

During the 10-month period, the volume of PESONet and Instapay transactions soared by 45.7 percent to 733.44 million   from   503.5 million in the same period last year.

PESONet and InstaPay are automated clearing houses, launched under the BSP’s National Retail Payment System (NRPS) that was launched in December 2015 to promote a safe, efficient, affordable, inclusive and reliable retail payment system.

PESONet enables high-value transactions and may be considered as an electronic alternative to the paper-based check system, while InstaPay is a real-time, low value electronic fund transfer facility for transactions up to P50,000 and is most useful for remittances and e-commerce.

From January to October, the value of PESONet transactions went up by 24.3 percent to P6.39 trillion from a year-ago level of P5.14 trillion, while that of InstaPay jumped by 42.3 percent to P4 trillion from P2.81 trillion.

For October alone, PESONet transactions surged by 29.3 percent to a record-high level of P697.2 billion from P539 billion in the same month last year as volume increased by 11.9 percent to 7.87 million from 7.03 million.

Likewise, the value of InstaPay fund transfers jumped by 46 percent to   P457 billion from P312.9 billion as volume soared by 77.6 percent to 86.64 million from 48.79 million.

Last year, the combined value of PESONet and InstaPay transactions jumped by 36 percent to P9.94 trillion from P7.24 trillion in 2021 as volume increased by 21 percent to 633.46 million from 523.59 million with more Filipinos choosing to transact online as an offshoot of the strict COVID-19 quarantine and lockdown protocols.

Under its Digital Payment Transformation Roadmap, the central bank aims to shift 50 percent of total retail transactions to electronic channels and onboard at least 70 percent of Filipino adults to the financial system through the ownership and use of a transaction account by 2023.