President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has signed into law a bill that aims to combat online scams.
The Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act mandates that financial institutions implement measures protecting the accounts of Filipinos from frauds who target online banks and e-wallets.
“It will protect our people from falling prey to perpetrators who target their banks and e-wallet accounts…I hope that, through this law, we can deter the majority of the financial scams that we have been seeing while at the same time fostering greater trust in our digitization efforts,” the President said.
The new law penalizes activities, including money muling (a type of money laundering), social engineering schemes, economic sabotage, and other offenses involving financial accounts.
“This is essential in this time as cybercriminals use technology to defraud fellow Filipinos — causing not only personal economic loss through them but also a loss of trust in financial institutions,” Marcos said.
Meanwhile, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) chief Eli M. Remolona Jr. welcomed the passage of the law, saying that this would help them ensure consumer protection.
The law authorizes BSP to probe into the financial accounts of those involved in the prohibited acts.
