Gatchalian not ruling out ‘inside job’ in credit card hacking incident

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Sherwin Gatchalian is not ruling out the possibility of an “inside job” after his credit card was hacked and used to purchase P1 million-worth of food items.

Gatchalian said he is not ruling out any possibility — including the angle of inside job — until investigation is finished.

“I don’t rule that out. In fact, I don’t rule out na mayroong coercion to and I don’t rule out mayroon tong cooperation or insider cooperation. Pwede sa Food Panda, pwede rin sa bangko, pwede rin sa iba pa. We need to investigate this but we cannot rule out anything right now,” Gatchalian told reporters in an interview.

On Wednesday, Gatchalian revealed that his credit card was hacked, with the hacker even ordering P1 million worth of food from a food delivery service, foodpanda.

Gatchalian said the hacker managed to change his registered phone number, giving the hacker access to the one-time passwords (OTPs) for the transactions.

The senator said he will file a police report on Thursday at the Valenzuela Police Station  for the incident to be investigated.

“Gusto ko muna mag-file ng police report to make this official para mayroon na ngayong case for asking Food Panda for more information,” Gatchalian said.

“Importante na gawin muna nating official ito but definitely dapat ma-pursue ito and I want to pursue this dahil… marami pang mabibiktima ito at marami ng nabiktima nito. We have to trace kung sino ba talaga ang gumagawa nito,” he added.

The senator likewise advised banks to strengthen their security measures especially amid the coronavirus pandemic where many resort to online transactions for their needs.

“Itong mga hacker, nage-evolve yan, nagi-inovate din. Tinitingnan nila kung saan sila pwede lumusot. Nakita nila, very loose itong pagpapalit ng number, napalitan nila. Moving forward, dapat palitan na ngayon ng bankgo yung kanilang sistema,” Gatchalian said.

EDV