AYALA-LED Globe Telecom, Inc. on Wednesday issued a public warning against acting as “money mules” to withdraw or transfer illegally obtained money.
“Money mules are verified account owners of a bank or other financial accounts used by a third party to obscure the source of the stolen funds and keep their identity a secret,” Globe said in an e-mailed statement.
“These mules usually receive a commission or a fee for the use of their accounts.”
Fraudsters go to poor communities and tell individuals they can make money using GCash on their phones, the company noted.
Ingrid Rose Ann Beroña, GCash chief risk officer, said: “These individuals ignore all the warning signs that this is an illegal activity, but the worst thing is they no longer possess the actual accounts.”
“The scammers can do anything they want with the accounts and not be liable for the consequences,” she added.
According to Globe, the mobile money service platform is able to detect accounts that are being used for mule activities.
“It has blocked 780,000 accounts due to identity fraud including money mule issues since January this year,” the company noted.
Globe also said that GCash is working with law enforcement agencies to arrest the fraudsters.
“The most recent was an entrapment operation carried out through a collaboration of the Philippine National Police, Globe, and GCash, which led to the arrest of a person selling over 500 GCash-registered SIM cards.”
GCash announced recently that at least one million active borrowers have been registered on the platform as of the end of June.
The company has disbursed over P40 billion in loans, it said in a statement. — Arjay L. Balinbin