BSP received over 42K complaints in 2021
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno announced that a total of 42,456 complaints have been filed to its Consumer Empowerment Group from 2020 to 2021.
Diokno said that the amount of questionable financial transactions ballooned up to P2 billion (US$39 million) last year.
Based on their monitoring, the central bank governor noted the top three cybercrimes listed include account takeover or identity theft; phishing and social engineering schemes; and, “card-not-present fraud” or transaction perpetrated by a scammer even without the victim’s credit card.
Additionally, Diokno recalled that starting 2019 to 2020, fraud cases surged by 2,324%, while hacking and malware attacks went up to 302%.
Identity theft also rose by 2.5% and card-not-present-fraud cases increased by 26.8%.
During the Senate deliberations, Diokno highlighted the importance of the Financial Consumer Protection Act to protect Filipinos from making financial transactions.
The proposed bill will provide financial consumers with new, immediate, and efficient avenues for redress, by granting financial regulators adjudicatory authority to conduct hearings on consumer complaints.
