BDO investigating suspicious bank transactions

MANILA, Philippines — BDO Unibank, the country's largest bank, is probing cases of unauthorized purchases and withdrawals after a number of clients complained about suspicious transactions.

In a statement on Tuesday night, BDO did not mention why it was informing the public about the spike in the transactions it had observed in the past months only now, weeks after incidents were reported on social media.

The bank reminded clients to keep their account information private and be careful with sharing these details with people through phone, text messages, e-mails and websites.

"We are currently running a thorough investigation process that involves tracing individual transactions, checking any irregularities and identifying signals of fraud from millions of valid transactions every day," the bank said in a statement.

"This challenging task is done to ensure that all cases are addressed accordingly, and that a resolution is served for all valid cases," it said.

BDO admitted that there had been an increasing number of clients who had experienced "suspicious bank account transactions" that involved withdrawals and purchases conducted without their knowledge.

The bank said that the number of such suspicious cases further rose in the last quarter of 2017, the peak of the shopping season in the Philippines as Filipinos celebrate the most important holidays in the country during this period.

"In the 4th quarter of 2017, we have seen an extraordinary rise in fraud attacks towards the entire industry with an increase in the number of claims for unauthorized transactions taking place in other countries," said the bank.

BDO warned clients that "unscrupulous" individuals and groups were constantly preying on unsuspecting account-holders to collect their bank details through skimming, phishing, social engineering and other "devious ways."

The bank encouraged its account-owners who had experienced such questionable transactions to file a report at [email protected], its international toll free number at +800-8-631-8000 and its domestic hotline at 631-8000.

"Your account’s safety and security are our top priority," the bank said.

This is the latest problem to hit the Philippine banking sector in the past year.

In June, the Bank of the Philippine Islands experienced an internal glitch that led to double posting of account transactions, paralyzing the operations of the Ayala-led bank for days.

Then days later, it was revealed that some of BDO's automated teller machines were compromised which resulted in losses to some depositors.

In the same month, Security Bank Corp. said that it experienced delays in posting bank transactions as it was conducting maintenance activities.