Here’s a horror story almost all of us can relate to.
“In a privilege speech, Rep. Cresente Paez of the Cooperative Network Party, revealed that he had not been withdrawing from his savings account with United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) branch in Blue Ridge, Quezon City, where his Social Security System (SSS) pension is deposited,” reports Jess Diaz in The Philippine Star.
However, when he made a balance inquiry sometime in May 2013, he noticed that he only had PHP190.08 left in his pension account. He had lost a total of PHP235,808.
Three months later, Paez said UCPB informed him that his ATM card was cloned when it was used at a Chinabank ATM outlet at the SM Mall in Cebu City.
He said, “Likewise, the bank told me that being the cardholder, I should be the one responsible for the unfortunate incident.”
Paez said he repeated his demand that UCPB refund him and he’s still awaiting the bank’s reply.
He went on to say, “I am just one of the 1,272 cases of ATM card fraud in 2013 involving P220 million. Do we have existing laws or policies relative to the protection of bank depositors in case their ATM cards are compromised? Do our banks adopt security feature in ATM cards in order to combat card fraud?”
Paez also wondered what the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is doing to improve ATM card security and to address complaints about ATM fraud.
Paez hopes his experience would push his fellow lawmakers to do something about ATM crimes.
Photo from MorgueFile
