Alcratis, Heather Glee A.

September 16, 2019

BS Accountancy 2A Operations Management and TQM

BDO FRAUD INCIDENT

In January 2018, BDO (Banco de Oro) faced an alarming problem were there are
unauthorized withdrawals and purchases reported by some of its bank account-holders without
their knowledge. This comes after BDO reported an "extraordinary rise in fraud attacks" in the
entire banking industry during the fourth quarter of 2017, "with an increase in the number of claims
for unauthorized transactions taking place in other countries. Meanwhile, the Bankers Association
of the Philippines (BAP) advised the public to be cautious in their daily transactions. Then BDO
Unibank encouraged its clients who may have been victimized by unauthorized withdrawals and
purchases to file formal complaints with the bank, as it noted a rise in cases of fraud in the industry.
They also warned clients against ATM skimming, phishing and social engineering and other
scams.

The company addressed this problem. BDO has issued an apology to their clients for the
increasing numbers of victims due to fraud attacks and vows to intensify investigation.

“We sincerely apologize for the pain and grief that this caused our customers. Nothing is
more important to us than your trust that we will be able to keep your money safe and secure. We
would like to reassure you that we are committed to investigating and bringing resolution to each
and every case brought to our attention,” BDO Unibank said quoted by Inquirer.

An investigation is needed before returning the customer’s money because based on BDO’s
experience, about one-third of fraud cases are classified as “legitimate fraud” where the customer
is truly a victim through no fault of their own because of bad elements such as crime syndicates.
Customers are immediately compensated in such scenarios.

Some cases, however, are classified as “familiar fraud”. This is when friends or family use
a customer’s accounts without their knowledge. A common example is when a PIN number is
shared to a trusted person for use on their behalf and the person betrays that trust. Banks always
advise that a customer keeps their PIN to themselves.

BDO said some complaints are “illegitimate” which means complaints had full knowledge
of their transactions but claim otherwise to extract financial gain from the bank.

The bank also promised to address the issue within 60-working days, but the compensation
will depend on the case-to-case basis. In the end, BDO UNIBANK, Inc. has settled the account
balances of depositors who have been affected by unauthorized withdrawals and purchases and
they take steps to ensure cards won’t get skimmed again.
 The Fraud incident had become a threat for the company because this issue can lose the
trust and loyalty of their customers. But still, BDO proves that they can still trust and continue
their loyalty to them because of the refunds that the victims got. Also, they take actions and address
the problem very well and immediately by having investigations. They also proves that they are
resilient enough to face the challenges that they may encounter. The incident seems like it doesn’t
affect the perception of the customers agaist the bank because people are now patronizing it. Since
it started on 1969 as Acme Savings and 1976 as BDO, the company fully gained the loyalty of
consumers for having their good image. That is why even though this fraud attacks happened only
a year ago, people now have forgotten this incident and still have their trusts. And now, they are
still continuing their services and provides a quality banking services.