Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Tuesday said the National Bureau of Investigation-Cybercrime Division will investigate the reported “phishing” schemes that affected accounts of some teachers in the Land Bank of the Philippines.
“The NBI is already looking into phishing of bank accounts on a broader scale, but I am minded to issue a separate directive to the NBI in the case of the teacher victims,” Guevarra said, in a text message.
Guevarra made the statement after the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition claimed that it received a number of reports that some teachers lost as much as P121,000 each from their Land Bank accounts.
Land Bank has immediately issued a statement denying that their systems were hacked, saying that the incident could be due to phishing.
Phishing involves the fraudulent practice of sending emails claiming to be from reputable companies to gain access to personal information of individuals, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
However, the state-owned bank said it has reached out to the affected customers in a bid to resolve the matter immediately.
Earlier, the DOJ said the NBI is set to acquire state-of-the-art investigative and intelligence equipment in order to keep pace with cyber fraudsters, particularly those involved in various financial scams.
Last year, the NBI received more than 1,400 cyber-related complaints involving financial scams and other frauds and attacks.