Senator Sherwin Gatchalian is looking at an “inside job” after his credit card was hacked and used to buy P1 million worth of food from Food Panda, a food delivery ice.
He said he was not ruling out any possibility—including an inside job-until an investigation was finished.
“I don’t rule that out. In fact, I don’t rule out that there may be a coercion and I don’t rule out that there was cooperation here or insider cooperation. It can be in Food Panda, it can be in the bank, there can be others involved here,” Gatchalian said.
He cited the need to investigate the hacking, saying “we cannot rule out anything right now.”
Gatchalian said the hacker gained access to his one-time password or OTP and used it for the food transactions after his registered phone number was changed.
At 4:47 p.m. on Tuesday the hacker asked for P96,265 worth of food for delivery. Then the hacker again asked at 4:56 p.m. that food worth P323,247 be delivered.
After a few minutes or at 5:11 pm, the hacker asked for food amounting to P356,517. The last delivery of food worth P300,851 was made at 5:49 p.m.
The food deliveries, all made through Food Panda, happened in just one hour.
Gatchalian said he will file a police report on Thursday at the Valenzuela Police Station “to make this official so that there’s now a case for asking Food Panda for more information.
“It’s important to make this official, but definitely this must be pursued. I want to pursue this because they can victimize many others.”
Gatchalian said the suspect behind the hacking should be traced. He also said food delivery services should seriously check all notification by email and text.
“If there is a suspicion, they should immediately call the banks…. most banks have a hotline,” he said.
He also called on the banks to boost their security measures especially amid the coronavirus pandemic, when many resort to online transactions for their needs.