The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Friday warned the public to remain vigilant against text messages urging users to click on malicious links that appear to come from legitimate banks electronic-money issuers or other financial institutions.
The BSP said it continues to receive reports of the fraudulent scheme known as text hijacking.
Text hijacking involves scammers inserting fake messages into legitimate text message threads to make them look authentic. These messages often contain malicious links designed to steal access to victims’ financial accounts and are usually accompanied by urgent prompts such as notifications of expiring rewards unauthorized transactions or account verification requests to pressure recipients into clicking the link.
The BSP said financial institutions will not send text messages and emails with clickable links to their customers following BSP Memorandum No. M-2022-015 issued in March 2022.
It said that to protect against scammers and fraudsters, the public should avoid clicking links in text messages or e-mails even if they appear to come from banks or e-money issuers enable multi-factor authentication to secure accounts and never share personal or financial details with anyone.
