BDO Unibank has removed all clickable links in its communication materials, including its official email, Viber, and text messages to clients to further protect them from fraudulent activities.
According to BDO, scammers have used clickable links sent through emails and messages (SMS and Viber) to dupe their victims and steal their bank information—usually in the guise of an “account suspension” threat, through account verification, because of an alleged cyberattack. Once victims click on these links, they are led to fake BDO websites. The victims are then instructed to input their username and password in these fake websites, which scammers will use to steal money from their victims’ online bank accounts.
To foil these fraudulent attempts, BDO said it has altogether removed clickable links from its official materials cascaded to clients.
Instead, the Bank is encouraging clients to log in through the official BDO digital banking app or manually type online.bdo.com.ph directly in the web browser to access their BDO digital banking account.
“Remember that BDO will never ask you to log in to your digital banking account through a link,” BDO said in its official social media page.
BDO also reiterated that it will never ask its clients for their username and password nor ask for their one-time PIN (OTP), and reminded its clients to never share these essential account details to anyone. “Your BDO digital banking username, password, and OTP are the key to your BDO accounts,” BDO stressed. “Keep your accounts safe by never sharing your login details with anyone and not clicking on links.”