MANILA, Philippines -- Jordinette Pacia was surprised by a call from her bank informing her of suspicious withdrawals from her account amounting to more than P131,000.
"P131,000 [ang] nailabas in one day at sa ibang bansa," Pacia told ANC, adding she was in shock after finding out her savings account only had P18,000 left after the "suspicious" withdrawals.
Bank records showed to Pacia stated there were 50 withdrawals all done on March 11 and in Bulgaria.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Pacia may have been a victim of ATM skimming or cloning.
"[Pwedeng] may mga skimming device na nailagay dun sa machine, then pag pasok niya nung card, nakopya yung information, naclone na yung card," Teresita Lisama, head of financial consumer affairs at BSP, told ANC.
But Lisama stressed Pacia's money should be returned if it is proven that she knew nothing about the transactions.
Sought for comment, Pacia's bank, BDO Unibank Inc., said it is already conducting an investigation into the incident. BDO added such has been a common problem for all banks and it is currently strengthening its system to avoid more incidents of ATM fraud.
"This is an industry-wide problem affecting all the banks and is not limited to BDO and its systems. We have already taken steps to secure our ATMS from such fraud attempts," BDO said.
source: abs-cbnnews.com
