BDO warns against fraud, scams

MANILA, Philippines — BDO strongly cautions its clients and the general public against the various modus operandi of scammers to steal account details, particularly at this time when people are using more online banking services for their transactions.

The bank has been actively tracking and taking down fake emails persuading clients to “immediately update” or “verify” their accounts to avoid deactivation. Scammers pose as BDO employees and create email aliases that look legitimate such as “BDO Customer Care” to make it appear as an official communication from the bank. These emails lead to fake websites which also look legitimate where scammers then steal customer information.

We’d like to reassure our customers that these email addresses were not taken from BDO’s database. Rather, these scammers harvest email addresses online and send them scam emails using a variety of fake bank aliases made to look like recognizable banks. This is why some customers get such scam emails from banks that they are not even customers of.

Aside from this, scammers also call clients and send text messages asking them for online banking details and One-Time PINs supposedly to protect the customer or verify a transaction. In reality, they are using this information to take over the customer’s account.

BDO reiterates that legitimate bank officers and communication will never: ask for username, password and OTP; ask to click on links to online banking. Only go to the official BDO page www.bdo.com.ph and ask for your credit card number and expiry date, CVV and OTP to verify online shopping transactions.

We advise customers to be smarter than scammers and follow BDO’s website and official Facebook page to learn more about how to protect themselves with #BDOAntiScam tips.