GCash blocks 3,200 merchants over gambling links

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MANILA, Philippines — E-wallet giant GCash has prohibited access to more than 3,200 merchants that abuse the national QR system to redirect consumers to dangerous activities, particularly illegal gambling.

In an advisory, GCash announced that it has blocked over 3,200 merchants from the e-wallet for misusing QRPh, the country’s unified QR system supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

These merchants were exploiting QRPh to divert traffic to malicious sites, such as fake payment pages and illegal gambling sites, exposing consumers to digital threats.

GCash operator G-Xchange Inc. is also heightening security measures to improve the safety and welfare of users. G-Xchange chief information and security officer Miguel Geronilla said GCash is also working with authorities in taking down malicious actors.

The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), for one, is heading government efforts to restrict access to illegal platforms. GCash reports suspicious transactions to regulators, led by the CICC, to support law enforcement.

Geronilla said it is crucial to take proactive measures when dealing with unauthorized activities to sustain customer trust in digital finance.

GCash also reminded users of the most common ways used by scammers to deceive their targets like QR masking, where a seemingly legitimate QR code directs payments to an illegal site.

Some also go as far as creating fake payment pages that imitate legitimate businesses to convince consumers to entrust their money on them.

Likewise, there are few who design their platforms to look like the GCash payment page. GCash said falling prey to these tactics could lead to financial losses and unauthorized transactions.

Based on a Global Anti-Scam Alliance report, at least three in four Filipinos have encountered a scam, and most of them receive at least once in two days. The report also said that more than one in five encounters were through illegal gambling.

On the average, the report said a victim loses nearly P11,900 to scams, and in the Philippines that equates to as much as P280.5 billion in losses.

Given this, GCash is expanding its security features to protect users from becoming a victim to the evolving ways that scammers do to dupe their targets.