G-Cash, a popular Philippine mobile payments service owned by Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc., doing business as Mynt, and operated by its wholly-owned subsidiary, G-Xchange, Inc., is under fire.

This as actress-comedian Pokwang, ^]Marietta Tan Subong, 54, in real life, and scores of clients have complained that they lost thousands of pesos due to unauthorized withdrawals.

Over 30 individuals have filed complaints  before the PNP Anti-Cyber Crime Unit  after losing thousands of pesos in their GCash accounts. Some got their refund, but others have not been resolved.

The complaints prompted several government agencies, including the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the National Privacy Commission (NPC) to order a thorough investigation even as GCash officials continue to claim that the loss of funds was due to glitch and not cyber attack.

The House of Representatives is also poised to conduct an investigation.

They said GCash’s response of “errors in an ongoing system reconciliation process” was insufficient.

In filing House Resolution No. 2068, the Makabayan bloc urged the Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries and the Committee on Information and Communications Technology to investigate the system glitch.

The group stressed the urgent need for stronger regulations for financial technology companies and enhanced consumer protection.

The lawmakers noted that GCash, which serves approximately 94 million users in the country, previously faced similar security issues.

In 2023, multiple users reported unauthorized deductions and “hacking incidents” amounting to an aggregate loss of P37 million, the bloc said.

“GCash should be held accountable for these irregularities that affect Filipinos who rely on the platform for their daily financial transactions,” they said.

GCash has assured its users that their money and accounts are safe and described the recent security breaches as isolated events. 

.As of May 2023, GCash claimed to have 94 million active users and 2.5 million sellers and merchants across the Philippines

In a statement, the NPC said the independent investigation is in line with its mandate to administer and implement the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

“Although GCash has stated that there was no compromise of customer credentials or data in the incident, the NPC will still conduct an independent investigation,” it said.

The NPC’s authority, it said, is focused on the protection of personal data and not on monetary losses and referred affected GCash customers to report to the appropriate financial regulatory agency.

“We urge individuals who may have been affected by this incident to reach out to the NPC through info@privacy.gov.ph and provide relevant information to assist with our investigation,” it said.

Earlier,  the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) called on those affected by unauthorized GCash transfers over the weekend to reach out to the agency for further investigation after GCash reported that a few of its users were affected by errors in an “ongoing system reconciliation process.”

It added that the case of actress Marietta “Pokwang” Subong is possibly an organized breach rather than a system glitch

Pokwang lamented how she lost some P80,000 through unauthorized transactions by 30 unregistered numbers in her e-wallet.

In an Instagram post, the comedian posted: “Naghahanap-buhay po ako ng marangal nagbibigay po ako ng hanap-buhay sa mga single mom, tapos isang umaga pagka-gising mo simot ang laman ng GCash account??? Iba’t ibang number na hindi naka-rehistro halos nasa 30 numero na hindi naka-rehistro!!!”

 Pokwang supported her Instagram post with the screenshots of the unauthorized transactions on her GCash account. 

The comedian questioned the registered SIM card law after she found out about what happened to her e-money. 

“Ano nangyare sa registered SIM policy ngayon? Nakakaiyak binangon ko mag-isa ang negosyong pinabayaan ng taong inasahan ko, pinagkatiwalaan ko, pati ba naman dito naisahan pa rin ako? Nakakaiyak talaga,” Pokwang said, seemingly referring to her American ex-husband Lee O’Brian. 

She and O’Brian parted ways this year. They had previously been business partners.

Pokwang called on GCash to address the issue. Her latest post included the statement issued by GCash. 

“A few GCash users were affected due to errors in an ongoing system reconciliation process. This incident was isolated to a few users and we assure our customers that their accounts are safe. We have identified and reached out to our affected accounts. Wallet adjustments are ongoing,” GCash stated.

 The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center  warned the public about a new scam circulating through short message service (SMS) that can enter legitimate message threads for e-wallet services like Gcash and Maya.

In a statement, CICC Executive Director Alexander Ramos said such fraudulent messages usually contain links to a fake site that capture the account holders’ details, including one-time passwords and other personal details.

“We are seeing more and more scam text inserting itself into legitimate Gcash or Maya SMS,” Ramos said.

He said scam SMS can sneak messages into legitimate message threads by using a web portal or application.

He also called on the public to be more vigilant and never click links sent through text messages.

To help inform its users, Smart, Maya, and Gcash have sent messages to their customers to never open links sent by text even from them.