Amid rising cyber attacks as the public shifts to online channels during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) warned its customers to be on the lookout for online scams.
Among these online scams is phishing – whereby malicious individuals deliberately try to obtain sensitive data from victims such as banking and credit card details, usernames, passwords, and other personal or sensitive information.
“Perpetrators are typically financially-motivated criminals or syndicates, usually involved in other cybercrimes such as hacking,” said UnionBank chief information security officer Joey Rufo. “As people shift to digital banking with the COVID-19 situation, scammers are taking advantage of the crisis to lure people into panic, and lure them into being phished.”
The most common ways cyber criminals carry out phishing is by contacting victims through email, phone calls, or instant messaging while masquerading as a representative of a legitimate institution such as a bank.
For those who suspect to have been phished, Rufo said the best way to protect themselves is to immediately change their username and password and report the incident to their email provider, so that they will no longer receive phishing mails. If compromised accounts are linked to banks and other financial institutions, victims should also notify these them immediately.
Rufo shared tips to the public to ensure their safety.
“Be wary of emails using scare tactics or COVID-19 to lure you into giving up your credentials. Use different emails for your personal, online banking, and social media. Do not share your username, password, and one-time password with any person via call, email, SMS, or a spoofed site. Do not disclose your mobile banking OTP. Its only for your banking log-in,” he said.
“Type the website address of your bank. Do not click on links. Always look at the email sender and the website you are visiting. Make sure it is always the official one. Watch out for spelling variations. Only download mobile applications from official sources,” Rufo said.
He added that in the case of UnionBank, it has in place several measures to prevent its clients from becoming victims of phishing and other types of cybercrimes. This includes partnering with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Bankers Association of the Philippines on customer engagement and awareness. The bank also regularly conducts awareness campaigns via social media, email, SMS, and in-app notifications, and continuously invests in strong cybersecurity technology that ensures strong customer protection.
“The bank continuously adapts the latest in cybersecurity technology and industry standards, through its 24×7 security operations center monitoring, and adaption of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards,” Rufo said.
