Globe says millions of customers report bank-related scam, spam messages

GLOBE Telecom, Inc. on Monday said it partnered with eight major banks to address bank-related scam and spam messages, which reached more than nine million in the first half of the year.

“Globe regularly receives reports of scam and spam messages from eight major banks, including UnionBank (UnionBank of the Philippines, Inc.), with which it has a formal agreement,” Globe said in an e-mailed reply to questions.

From January to June 15, the telco managed to block 9,063,698 messages reported by customers to their banks, it added.

One-time password requests were among the messages blocked.

Globe said it also blocked 1,119 vishing calls, “another scamming scheme where fraudsters call bank customers pretending to be legitimate bank representatives to obtain sensitive information.”

“These bank-related messages and calls are among the total 138 million scam and spam messages that Globe blocked in its network in the first half of the year through a stringent filtering system,” it added.

The telco noted that phishing scams have resulted in a number of depositors losing their money to fraudsters.

“As early as 2019, Globe created a 24/7 group chat with major commercial banks and Mynt, the operator of GCash, for immediate and direct reporting of spam messages mostly received from their customers,” it said.

“Globe has also decided to work with online marketplaces like Lazada and Shopee and provides the same brand whitelisting service as well as 24×7 threat spam/scam intelligence sharing to protect Globe customers that use these e-commerce websites,” the company added. — Arjay L. Balinbin