The Department of Justice has instructed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate and conduct a case build-up regarding the phishing scam that victimizes teachers.
“Grace” was among 28 teachers and staff of the Department of Education (DepEd) who formed a group because they consistently received a one-time PIN at the same time.
They didn’t use it, but when they checked their account, they had already lost money.
About P200,000 was lost in “Grace’s” Landbank account.
“Mga around 9 p.m. noong January 11, naka-receive po ako ng email from my mobile phone ng OTP. Very suspicious po dahil wala naman po ako ginagawang transaction that time,” said “Grace.”
“Para po kaming nanakawan nang wala po kaming kalaban-laban,” she added.
According to Benjo Basas, national chairperson of the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition, the victimized teachers and DepEd personnel are also preparing an affidavit to submit to the NBI.
When asked for a statement on whether the victims’ money could be returned, Landbank told ABS-CBN News that it is already handling all reported banking fraud cases.
According to the bank, the reports will go through a thorough investigation to resolve immediately.
NBI probes phishing scam that targets teachers
According to Education Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla, DepEd assists the victimized employees in communicating with Landbank.
According to Sevilla, the resolution of the cases will be between the bank and the account holder.
He said DepEd would issue another advisory or reminder to employees to avoid online scams.
In a statement, LandBank clarified that their system had not been hacked. Instead, what happened was an unauthorized transaction on the part of the teachers.
“According to the initial investigation by LandBank, the teachers’ devices were hacked via phishing which compromised their personal information,” the bank said.
Meanwhile, Senator Grace Poe said Thursday that the review of counterfeit money possibly issued by automated teller machines (ATMs) should not be passed on to the public.
Poe made the statement after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) issued a notice that the public should check the money they can get from ATMs if counterfeit money can be leaked.
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