The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) are now actively monitoring the latest problem besetting GCash, the dominat e-wallet operator in the country.
A number of GCash users, among them local comedian Pokwang, have posted on social media that their funds on the e-money platform suddenly disappeared without them doing anything.
For its part, GCash said has acknowledged that a “system reconciliation” was the culprit and that the company is now fixing the issue.
“A few GCash users were affected due to errors in an ongoing system reconciliation process. This incident was isolated to a few users, and we assure our customers that their accounts are safe,” the e-wallet firm said.
“We have identified and reached out to affected accounts. Wallet adjustments are ongoing,” it added.
In a statement, the CICC said it is currently coordinating with GCash to understand what transpired and is collaborating closely with the NTC on how victims can be assisted.
As of Friday, Nov 9, the CICC said majority of those affected and reported the unauthorized fund transfers had their money returned.
However, Manila Bulletin columnist Arturo Samaniego Jr., who was implicated recently by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as a hacking mastermind, again tried to muddle the issue by claiming in his Facebook post that the losses experienced by GCash users was due to a phishing attack.
This is the second time that Samaniego, who also wrote the fake Comelec hacking story in the Manila Bulletin, has pinned the blame on GCash users after claiming last year that phishing was the reason when their funds missing. It turned out that GCash was indeed compromised by hackers who used the gambling ads located inside the app to steal the money.
Meanwhile, the CICC renewed its appeal to the public to report scams and all forms of cybercrimes to the Inter-Agency Response Center (IARC) hotline 1326 instead of ranting on social media.
“We encourage the public to please report to CICC if they were affected by the recent e-wallet loses. We may be able to assist them if they call 1326 so they can be assisted in the investigation instead of posting their losses in social media,” said CICC executive director Alexander K. Ramos.
“Your social media platforms will not in any way assist you nor resolve your losses in your e-wallets,” he said, adding that the hotline 1326 is toll-free and operates round-the-clock from Mondays to Sundays including holidays.
