What customer service?

We received some very interesting mail reacting to the series of columns that we have been coming out with regarding the ATM scam that victimized one of BPI’s depositors of more than P80,000, and I’d like to share some parts of these letters.

Ms. Maricar L. Testa writes, "Thanks for your article on the BPI ATM scam. I’m sure that most ATM users are not aware of this and that BPI must inform its clients re precautions to take. Perhaps the BPI ATM machines can now be hacked and pins keyed in "listened" to and recorded. Whatever it is, please write about what BPI has done to solve this security loophole."

Well, Ms. Testa, in response to your request to write about what BPI or the Bank of the Philippine Islands has done, let me tell you in the words of the victim and in capital letters…NOTHING.

Oh yes, come to think of it according to the victim the BPI did one thing.

After confirming that indeed a huge amount of money was successfully withdrawn from the BPI ATM account, a BPI senior vice president wrote the victim a letter literally contesting the victim’s complaint.

Was the letter trying to say that the victim was really a suspect?

Is BPI now saying that the victim’s story is not true and the victim just all made it up to get the more than P80,000 back, lost through the scam that the BPI is now saying may not have been lost the way the victim has claimed it was or may not have been lost at all?

In all these complexities the following remains unchanged:

a) The victim was given a "preferred banker status", without even asking, by BPI. This is a privilege given only to "valued depositors" of good standing and with investment placements. This is basically almost limitless withdrawals were successfully made in only two days time.

b) The "valued depositor" was victimized by a scam, which appears to be already known for a long time by BPI, yet no adequate or effective information campaign has been made by BPI to warn their depositors about it.

c) The BPI "valued client" made a report and complaint to the bank about the scam but in response BPI wrote the victim a letter that curtly says that the victim’s story is not possible because of their high tech "mambo jumbo".

To summarize, the victim lost more than P80,000 through a scam known to BPI for a long time now but has not adequately warned its depositors about it and the BPI does not want to have anything to do with the loss (are they even doubting it?) and the victim is even considered a valued client, a preferred banker at that–is this the brand of "customer service" that the Bank of the Philippine Islands is spending millions of pesos in advertising just to promote?

All these millions would go to naught just with this case where a valued depositor with a preferred banker status even with investment placements is just left by the wayside to cry alone after being victimized by a scam long known to the bank and even doubted at that.

With this particular case, how can BPI honestly say that they have "customer service"?

Thanks for your letter Ms. Testa.

We also received a letter from Mr. Sidney Bertram Lim of the World Health Organization and parts of it say: "Being a BPI customer for almost seven years, I am quite concerned about the recent scam. I really am bothered about this and my heart goes out to all the victims. I dare not call this a "BPI ATM scam" because I have no right to say whether they are guilty of this crime or not. I have not read your previous columns on this issue so please bear with me if my knowledge about this is quite limited. I’ve read this particular column and I have not seen other emails regarding other ATM scams similar to this.

I would appreciate if there were facts regarding an investigation on this matter were presented. So far, we only have statements from the victims themselves or some BPI employee. Considering that the events happened on a Sunday, it is not normal that a BPI employee would be working that day. It is quite impossible for him to acquire the card on a Monday morning and then withdraw P80,000 in different places all over the metro before the customer could report this to BPI office. Only authorized employees could have retrieved the card from the machine itself. But still, if there was still a card locked within the machine how could there be four victims (I’m assuming that all four victims were scammed on the same day). If a card was stuck in the machine, it would be impossible for another customer to use the machine.

Therefore, I am assuming that a real scam artist (not a BPI employee) was behind all of this. He probably must have tampered with the machine so that the ATM would eat the card and not dispense cash at the same time. He must have been somewhere within the vicinity waiting for a victim. Once a victim takes the bait, he’ll probably have binoculars (or anything) that would allow him to see the victims PIN code. Once the victim leaves, he sneaks out to get the ATM card and prepare it for another user."

Thanks for your letter Mr. Lim but please make no mistake about it, I have never said anything in my columns that would cast any doubt on the BPI as a willing party involved in the said scam. I still have the highest respect for BPI’s banking integrity. It’s its way of serving its customers that I am highly questioning now. Your analysis about the situation runs along what has been confirmed to me by an ATM expert that there are several ways of acquiring PINs other than its voluntary disclosure. They border from the very practical way of looking over the shoulder of a depositor to the highly technical manner of hacking it through modern eavesdropping devices.

I also like to thank Mr. Danny Isla, a top ranking car firm marketing executive for supplying me with actual videos showing how the said "Lebanese Loop or Scam" in an ATM booth as recorded by security cameras.

I guess what we should hear from next is what the Bangko Sentral ng Pilpinas, ruling body for the local banking system would have to say regarding protecting the banking public against these scams and against uncaring banks.

Mabuhay! Be proud to be a Filipino!

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