Isabela college student denies making profit from credit card scam

A Computer Science student from Isabela admitted he was able to obtain sensitive information of clients of a local bank but said it was for research purposes only.

Christian Ian Salvador, a 22-year-old Computer Science student from Isabela State University, was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for violating the Cybercrime Law after he managed to obtain bank clients’ information such as usernames, passwords and credit card numbers and security codes, among others.

READ: Isabela college student nabbed for credit card scam

The NBI said Salvador sold the phished information to third parties, used the phished credit card credentials to purchase gadgets which he would sell in cash and managed to purchase a brand new Toyota Vios, Honda Beat and Toyota Mio motorcycle.

“Inaadmit ko naman po ako talaga pinanggalingan pero hindi ko po s’ya ginamit for illegal purposes (I admit I was the source(of the phished information) but I never used it for illegal purposes),” Salvador told reporters.

Salvador managed to phish information by sending emails to customers of the bank, informing the clients that due to security reasons, the bank was performing an update of its online banking database and the customers need to update their bank information by clicking on a link.

The link is a replica of the bank’s legitimate website. The clients will input the required information and once it was entered, it would be collated and sent to Salvador’s email.

But Salvador denied profiting from the phished information.

He said he shared the information to another person who probably passed the information to other people.

“Hindi ko po ginawa ‘yun, sir. Ang mga gumawa po noon, ‘yung ibang nabigyan ng phishing page na galing sa akin. [I did not do that (sell information and use the credit cards), sir. It was probably the others who got hold of the information who used it (for profit),” Salvador said, adding that those who got hold of the phished information even thanked him.

Salvador also said he is not a member of Anonymous Philippines. IDL