GCash blocks over 7,000 accts

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May 15, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — GCash has blocked more than 7,000 merchants since 2025 over suspected illegal online gambling, suspicious transaction activity and potential abuse of digital payment channels, as it backed stronger merchant verification measures to curb fraud.

The e-wallet giant said it supports the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s push for tighter consumer protection, stricter onboarding controls and stronger safeguards amid the growing misuse of QR-based transactions and other digital payment channels.

GCash said its fraud surveillance systems continue to detect, flag and report suspicious transaction patterns to the BSP and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), including thousands of suspected illegal online merchants and suspicious accounts operating outside the GCash platform but targeting its users.

GCash chief information security officer Miguel Geronilla said scammers are increasingly adopting traditional fraud schemes to digital channels through fake QR codes, impersonation, fake seller activity, fraudulent payment screenshots and deceptive payment pages.

“Scammers are exploiting trust, urgency, impersonation and social engineering tactics – not just technology,” Geronilla said.

He said the rise of interoperable digital payments has also made fraud risks more dispersed across the broader ecosystem, particularly as QR-based transactions involve multiple players such as merchant onboarding channels, aggregators and external payment acceptance environments.

GCash noted that QR payments were originally designed for face-to-face transactions, but are increasingly being used in online environments where fraud risks may be harder to contain and may involve several participants across payment networks.

The company said interoperability remains important in expanding financial inclusion and digital payment adoption, but safeguards must keep pace with more sophisticated fraud and social engineering tactics.

“The digital payments ecosystem can only remain trusted if all participants uphold strong compliance, monitoring and consumer protection standards,” Geronilla said.

“Bad actors seeking to exploit gaps in digital payment environments must be addressed swiftly through strong coordination, proactive monitoring, and effective safeguards across the ecosystem,” he added.

GCash said it continues to coordinate with the BSP, AMLC, Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center and the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group to address suspicious digital transaction activity and financial cybercrime.

The company also reminded users to verify recipient and merchant details before completing transactions, especially when scanning QR codes shared online or through unknown sources.