GCash, the country's leading e-wallet, said its operations went back to normal as scheduled at 3PM Tuesday, May 9 with "no funds lost" after the mobile wallet, which has 66 million users, suspended its operations last night when hackers attempted to transfer cash from some bank accounts.
"We have already adjusted the e-wallets of all affected GCash users. We wish to reiterate that our customers did not lose their funds on GCash," said the mobile wallet in its official statement issued to the media.
"The app is now up for service so you can safely proceed with your regular transactions."
East West Banking Corporation (EWB), one of the banks where suspicious transactions being made to GCash was detected, also issued its official statement simultaneously.
"EWB has been made aware of news reports regarding unauthorized cash transfers from GCash into allegedly certain EWB account," the bank stated.
"EWB immediately acted on these reports and initiated its own internal investigation."
"Rest assured that we are cooperating with authorities and other institutions involved in the said report. We are working towards the immediate resolution of this matter," EWB stressed.
Similarly, GCash assured users that their "funds are intact, safe, and secure".
"Our proactive cybersecurity policies are in place to protect our customers as the safety and security of your account is our top priority."
Nevertheless, "We advise our users to remain vigilant in their online transactions. GCash will never send emails or messages with links nor reach out to customers via calls and other messaging platforms."
GCash users should never share their MPIN and One-time Pin (OTP) to anyone, and should report suspicious activities through the Help Center at https://help.gcash.com/hc/en-us, and talk to Gigi, or call the hotline at 2882 for other queries.
GCash detected a pattern of small withdrawals of a few thousand pesos each from several users sent to just a couple of bank accounts on Monday night.
The mobile wallet did not disclose the sum of the suspicious transactions but they were reckoned to be under P50 million.
GCash froze the transfers as soon as it identified a pattern which initially appeared “legitimate”.
However, fraudsters could have mined the user data via phishing and GCash promptly put the transactions on hold.