Credit Card Fraud in Philippines Rises 21% as Online Deals Surge

(Bloomberg) -- Credit card fraud in the Philippines rose 21% since the coronavirus pandemic, with many incidents involving scammers gaining access to one-time passwords to transact online, an industry group said on Thursday. 

“The industry has been experiencing high volumes of fraud cases causing financial detriment. These perpetrators have carried out fraud by using the various digital payment platforms,” Alex Ilagan, executive director of the Credit Card Association of the Philippines, said in a statement.

A “virtual account take over” -- where fraudsters access OTPs to validate online transactions -- account for the highest credit card fraud losses, the group said. Regulators and telecommunication companies must tighten rules when providing customers with mobile-phone numbers or changing them, and create a process to report numbers used to defraud people, it said.

“There are no existing laws which protect the consumers from this mode of attack from the fraudsters,” the credit card group said, as it threw support to a bill requiring persons to register their Philippine SIM cards.

Philippine Central Bank Allays Fears After Cyber Fraud Hit BDO

With pandemic restrictions pushing transactions into digital form, the central bank has asked the public to be vigilant amid emerging risks and frauds. 

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