- GoTyme Bank has intensified its security measures and has disabled suspicious accounts to protect the public from fraudulent activities.
- It recently hired a fraud strategy head in a proactive and pre-emptive move to prevent, detect, and respond to fraud attempts.
- It has partnered with Scam Watch Pilipinas to educate Filipinos nationwide on cyber fraud.
GoTyme Bank, a joint venture between the Gokongwei group of companies and multicountry digital banking group Tyme, has intensified its security measures and has disabled suspicious accounts to protect the public from fraudulent activities and to keep banking safe and secure.
Locking or subjecting accounts for review is a standard bank practice in compliance with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for accounts suspected of being used for fraudulent or malicious activities. This is in line with efforts to curb phishing, a type of social engineering attack often used to steal user data.
A survey by the Statista Research Department on personal finance conducted during the fourth quarter of 2022 in the Philippines found that 51 percent of respondents who had experienced digital fraud attempts were targeted with phishing attacks, while 42 percent were subjected to money or gift card fraud schemes.
GoTyme locks accounts to ensure compliance with regulations and so that banking continues to be a safe partnership rooted in trust. It uses AI-powered tools to detect suspicious activities.
A deactivated account goes under review if it had been reported by another bank or by the authorities to be involved in unauthorized transactions or fraudulent activities.
Included in these activities is money muling, a type of money laundering in which someone lets someone else use their bank account to transfer money, often keeping a little bit for themselves.
The account holder whose account has been disabled needs to immediately get in touch with GoTyme through its official communication channels. Accounts on hold may be reactivated upon completion of the bank’s requirements. Account holders may contact GoTyme Bank’s Customer Success Team anytime for proper guidance and coordination.
Albert Tinio, GoTyme Bank co-CEO, assures the public that GoTyme is a proactive bank that anticipates its clients’ needs and problems to better satisfy their demands and improve their experience. “Banks must always make banking secure for their clients,” he says. “We see and monitor banking activities like a closed-circuit television, and we take all measures to protect our customers and the public. When we disable an account, it undergoes a review and is put on debit hold. This prevents the account holder from withdrawing or transferring funds from the account. To reactivate this account the holder needs to submit regulatory requirements to GoTyme.”
A formal investigation will then be conducted to validate the information and documents, and to determine if the review status can be lifted.
Generally, banks take down accounts they suspect are engaging in fraud activities, which, besides money muling and phishing, include vishing (a fraudster’s attempt to take confidential details from you over a phone call), skimming (an attempt capture your personal or account information from your credit/debit card), and smishing (a combination of text messaging and phishing, in which email is sent to someone with the intent of obtaining personal information that can be used for identity theft). And while banks do their best to maintain a safe and cyber-resilient culture, customers also have the duty to keep their accounts safe and exercise cyber-hygiene.
A Scam Watch Pilipinas partner
For its part, GoTyme has adopted cutting-edge technology that it keeps upgrading to strengthen cybersecurity controls. It employs high levels of encryption throughout its platform and conducts automated security checking of its code with a tool for analyzing software for bugs and vulnerabilities.
It works with NICE Actimize, the leading global provider of financial crime, risk, and compliance solutions, while continually instructing its customers on the secure use of digital banking platforms and encouraging them to set up features such as multifactor authentication, SMS or email alerts, and fraud monitoring.
It recently hired a fraud strategy head, Jason Brasileño, in a proactive and pre-emptive move to prevent, detect, and respond to fraud attempts. Brasileño is tasked with drawing up a fraud management policy and establishing a fraud and scam prevention regime in GoTyme through an MIS-managed approach using data analytics and optimization of fraud detection systems. He has had more than 12 years’ experience in risk management and fraud prevention.
GoTyme has also partnered with Scam Watch Pilipinas the national cybersecurity movement which was institutionalized by multiple government agencies (Department of Information and Communications Technology, Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, and National Telecommunications Commission, among others) in July this year as the citizen arm to educate Filipinos nationwide on cyber fraud. The group has opened up the Inter-Agency Response Center (I-ARC) Hotline 1326 to handle reports of scams or suspicious activities.
Becoming a Scam Watch Pilipinas partner is just one of the many ways in which GoTyme takes preventive measures to solve problems and meet users’ needs before they arise. For its part, Scam Watch urges the public to immediately call the hotline 1326 to report scams, which helps recover suspended or disabled accounts and, sometimes, even money.
Tinio says, “GoTyme does its best to protect customers from fraud and other security attacks. Customers, however, must also be vigilant and do their part to protect themselves and the online environment. If they suspect that they are being scammed, they should report it immediately.”