The East West Banking Corp. (East West) and Asia United Bank (AUB) have taken separate actions into the reports of alleged unauthorized cash transfer to the accounts associated with them from the mobile electronic wallet GCash.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Asia United Bank (AUB) said it has received an alert from GCash in regards to the unauthorized transfer of funds from GCash to a certain AUB account through Instapay.
"AUB immediately acted upon on the alert and temporarily put the AUB account on hold," it said.
The bank said it is now coordinating with the Globe Telecom Inc. operated application in investigating the report.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, EastWest Bank (EWB) said that it has launched an internal investigation after learning about the news reports.
"Rest assured that we are cooperating with authorities and other institutions involved in the said report. We are working towards the immediate resolution of this matter," it said.
On Tuesday morning, GCash topped the trending list on Twitter as many users reported that they experienced issues accessing their accounts.
A day before the system glitch, on Monday, May 8, some netizens have already claimed that their GCash accounts have been hacked as their money was allegedly sent to banks like EastWest Bank and AUB without any notification of OTP and MPIN.
Multiple users said the money was transferred to the same AUB and EastWest account numbers.
Meanwhile, in an update as of 4 pm, GCash said the funds in the e-wallets of affected GCash users have already adjusted.
"We wish to reiterate that our customers did not lose their funds on GCash. The app is now up for service so you can safely proceed with your regular transactions," it said.
"Rest assured, your funds are intact, safe, and secure with GCash," it added.
The popular digital platform also informed the public that it will never send emails or text messages containing links nor reach out to customers via calls or messaging platforms.
