GCash ramps up user data protection to help fight scam text messages

GCash is underscoring its strong commitment to protecting the accounts and personal information of its customers by ramping up user data protection to help address scam text messages that bear the full names of mobile phone users.

As an added layer of customer protection, GCash silently rolled out a feature update that anonymizes the names of users in the send money service. In the past, the name of the person is seen as an added measure of convenience and helped verify that the recipient is correct.

“We have been working closely with the National Privacy Commission on the issue of text scams with names. We wish to assure our customers that our systems and infrastructure remain secure and there is no incidence of any data leak or breach,” shared Mark Frogoso, Chief Information Security Officer of GCash. “Protecting the personal information of our customers remains a top priority which we believe is integral to our vision of achieving Finance for All.”

GCash also asserts the integrity of the data of its over 66 million users, saying there has been no data breach or leak in its systems.

“We need to strike a balance between customer experience and strengthening measures to keep user information safe from unscrupulous individuals. The feature that shows the full names of recipients was intended to help users verify if they are sending to the right person and avoid being scammed,” Frogoso said.

GCash has also been getting support from its parent company, Globe Telecom, which has spent USD 20PHP 1,174INR 1,695EUR 19CNY 146 million or about PHP 1.1USD 0.02INR 2EUR 0.02CNY 0.14 billion to boost its capabilities in detecting and blocking scam and spam messages.

Globe says that it has blocked 784 million scam and spam messages from January to July this year, deactivated 14,058 scam-linked SIMs and blacklisted 8,973 others. Globe also blocked 610 domains or uniform resource locators (URL).

GCash has also been able to detect and take down phishing sites and malicious social media sites that impersonate GCash, with 900 phishing sites and 400,000 social media accounts already taken down.

To report scams and fraudulent activities, visit the official GCash Help Center at https://help.gcash.com/hc/en-us or message Gigi on the website and type, “I want to report a scam.”

GCash will NEVER send users personal messages to address concerns or get personal information, especially the MPIN and One-time Pin (OTP). Customers can also reach out to the official GCash hotline 2882 for queries and other concerns.