'Smishing' scam victims seeking answers, accountability

When her father, a senior citizen, recently fell victim to a "spoofed message" scam, the priority of Theresa (not her real name) was to dispute the transactions amounting to almost P250,000.

- JANVIC MATEO, EJ MACABABBAD and RONA AMPARO

Because the message appeared within an official SMS thread, her family believes that the burden of paying for the fraudulent transaction should not be passed on to victims.

"It was very stressful for our family because the messages were convincing and created a strong sense of urgency, especially regarding the expiring rewards," Theresa said in a message to The STAR.

"My father is already a senior, which made it more difficult for him to immediately recognize that it was a scam." But since her father provided the onetime password (OTP), the bank ruled that the transaction was valid.

"We feel that consumer protection in this situation was not sufficient, and despite explaining everything multiple times, we are still being contacted and asked to pay the P250,000. It has been very distressing for my dad as he continues to receive calls regarding this," Theresa lamented.

Lack of explanation

The STAR tried to reach out to various financial institutions to inquire about their policies regarding fraudulent transactions.

Only BDO Unibank, whose consumers are among those targeted by spoofed messages, responded to queries.

But when asked about complaints of fraudulent transactions tagged as "valid," it simply stated: "The bank provides appropriate assistance to the customers." Such explanations are often inadequate to quell the discontent of victims, who are often left worrying about mounting debts they never benefited from.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), victims may escalate complaints to the agency if their bank's customer service channel is unable to resolve the matter.

"If the financial consumer remains unsatisfied with the actions taken by the financial institution... the case may be elevated to the BSP's Consumer Complaints Resolution Office for mediation or adjudication," the central bank stated in a written response to The STAR.