Remulla on GCash woes: Glitches expected but correction more so

The Department of Justice is monitoring unauthorized cash deductions which reportedly affected some GCash accounts, Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said on Wednesday.

Remulla said GCash is already correcting the situation.

"We are monitoring that… It can be subject to a cybercrime [investigation] if it is not rectified immediately," Remulla said.

Asked if GCash would no longer be liable if the glitches are rectified, Remulla said, "I don’t think they can be liable because glitches are expected but rectification is more expected also."

Remulla said he still had no information on whether or not the unauthorized cash transfers were due to hacking.

"If there is hacking, will the DOJ cyber crimes take necessary action," Remulla said.

GMA News Online has sought GCash's comment as regards Remulla's remarks.

All the funds affected by what it called "sophisticated phishing" already should have been returned, a spokesperson for GCash has said.

According to Joseph Morong's report on "Saksi", more than 1,000 GCash accounts out of 81 million subscribers have been affected.

It said the incident was isolated and that there were no glitches in the system.

"This is a phishing incident and not hacking... The fraudster attempted to link a device," GCash vice president for corporate affairs Gilda Maquilan said.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Wednesday said it was looking at the recent reports of unauthorized fund transfers affecting GCash accounts, with funds said to have been forwarded to other local lenders.

GCash said it is working with the BSP on the matter but no further details were available.

GCash — which currently has over 79 million users — is registered as a non-bank financial institution electronic money issuer (EMI-NBMF).

It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations Inc.), which is in turn a partnership between Globe Telecom Inc., the Ayala Corp., and Ant Financial.

The firm on Tuesday reported a temporary downtime of its system, as it said it extended its scheduled maintenance to investigate the reported unauthorized fund transfers. It said there was no hacking that happened. —NB, GMA Integrated News