PDAX CyberSecure: Fraudulent Activities During COVID-19

COVID-19 has changed how we do things on a daily basis as we stay at home, including the way we avail and deliver goods and services.

In their latest memorandum released on April 29, 2020, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) warns that new forms of terrorism financing and money laundering have recently surfaced to take advantage of the situation.

According to BSP, illegal schemes that exploit the changes in the working arrangements, lifestyles, or behavior of the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic are on the rise. This is in addition to phishing/spear phishing campaigns and other cases of fraudulent activities that have also increased in recent weeks.

These illegal schemes have been identified by the BSP as the following:

1. Donation/Charity Scams — Fundraising for fake charities to allegedly help the needy or provide support to the frontliners and/or medical personnel.
2. Impostor, Investment, and Product Scams — Impostor scams are executed by impersonating corporate executives and instructing employees to perform financial transactions or to disclose confidential information. Investment and product scams offer fraudulent investment opportunities to the public or involve the manufacture, sale or distribution of fake medicine, products or services and exploiting people in urgent need of care and promising COVID-19 cure.
3. Money Mules — Money mules are persons recruited to lend their personal bank/e-money accounts to receive cash deposits/online transfers from illegal sources under the guise of “charity or COVID-19 donations”.
4. Online Sex Trafficking and Exploitation — Fund transfers or digital payments for online sex trafficking or child exploitation especially during the community quarantine.
5. Veiled Donations for Terrorism and Terrorism Financing — Online donations solicited and collected by certain organizations or persons for COVID-19 purposes but in fact will be used to promote and finance terrorism.

BSP explained that these schemes usually involve financial transactions, such as funds/wire transfers or use deposit or other transaction accounts.

Security is always the highest priority at PDAX. As fraudsters try to exploit this public health crisis as an opportunity to commit cybercrimes, PDAX would like to remind everyone to always be vigilant and observe the best practices in keeping their PDAX account safe.

For inquiries, concerns, and technical assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Client Services Team via email at support@pdax.ph or by submitting a support ticket using this link: http://bit.ly/38UTW3o.

Source: BSP MEMORANDUM NO. M-2020–03