A netizen gives a warning to the public on his social media post after almost all of his savings on his Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) account got stolen.
She said she never expected that she would become a v1ctim of an online scam by just using the official BPI-OTP number.
In a Facebook post on August 11, a certain Justine Qui shared how she fell v1ctim to this m0dus operandi.
She said,
"Last Friday, August 7, I received a text message from the OFFICIAL BPI-OTP number telling me to expect a call.
"The message said their agent with the number 09162083912 would call regarding my account. Sure, a little strange, but this was the official BPI-OTP number that has been sending me all my previous OTPs for all my online transactions.
"Past experience told me this number only sent automated messages, so this must’ve been an official call from BPI, right?"
The next day, Justine received a call from the number stated in the BPI-OTP message.
Justine said,
"I was told to read two sample messages out loud, which I would realize were activation keys that allowed the scammers to access my BPI online account."
That night, she received emails saying that there were funds transfers from his account and the money was deposited to a Paymaya account.
Justine deeply regrets that only Php200 is left in her savings. She said she immediately reported it to BPI.
She said,
"I immediately contacted the BPI customer support hotline to ask for help. I forwarded a screenshot of the BPI-OTP message I received from THEIR number. You know, the number we’ve been conditioned to trust because that’s where all our OTPs come from."
She added,
"I told the support personnel what happened, and all they could offer was to report the issue. They said they couldn’t do anything about the money stolen from me with the help of their own security number. Nothing. Nada. Just me, a “reported issue,” and my annual savings of Php 200."
Justine also worries that the scammers have used the BPI-OTP number itself.
"Aside from the obvious issue of losing all my money, what concerns me the most is that the BPI-OTP number - an official number that I am supposed to trust for all my banking transfer passwords - is compromised."
It is just sad to know that despite the pand3mic we are facing right now, there are still many people who choose to deceive or exploit their fellowmen.
