Hackers charge more than P1M in food deliveries in just an hour to senator’s card

MANILA, Philippines — Hackers breached a bank account of one of the country’s wealthiest senators on Tuesday, but did little damage aside from charging more than P1 million in food deliveries to his credit card.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who declared a net worth of P95.4 million in 2019, posted on Twitter a screenshot of four “unauthorized” transactions charged to his credit card. The charges were all made within an hour on Tuesday afternoon, the first one, for P96,265, at 4:47 p.m., the second, for P323,247, at 4:56 p.m., the third, for P356,517, at 5:11 p.m., and the last, for P300,851 at 5:49 p.m.

The charges totaled P1,076,880, but it was not immediately clear if ordered items were actually delivered. Gatchalian , however, said in a Zoom interview that the bank had been made aware of the unauthorized activity and would not charge him the amount.

“They know these are fraudulent transactions,” said the senator, who said he would still report the “hacking” incident to the Valenzuela Police Station on Thursday.

Explaining how the suspect might have obtained his information, Gatchalian said he received a series of notifications indicating a change in the registered mobile number of his account. That enabled the perpetrator to receive a one-time PINs (OTPs) for transactions made on the senator’s card.

“[The hacker] knew what he was doing. I just don’t know how he will eat a million worth of food,” Gatchalian said in a reply to a Twitter user.

Asked if it could be someone close to him, Gatchalian said he could not tell.

“It was done through the website and through the phone number. I didn’t sense any physical interaction in what happened,” the senator told reporters.

Gatchalian said he hoped his experience would serve as a warning to the public to be careful about their credit card information, especially during the pandemic.

“This was my first time to be hacked… Normally, whenever I order from Food Panda, I’d consider P2,000 to be huge already,” he said.