SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday said his credit card was illegal accessed by somebody who used it to purchase some P1 million worth of food items from a delivery service in just one hour last Tuesday.
Gatchalian broke the news in a Twitter post yesterday, saying: “My credit card has just been hacked! May nag order ng P1 (million) worth of food sa Food Panda in less than an hour. Ano yan lauriat para sa buong barangay (What’s that, lauriat for an entire village?”
According to his Tweet, the hacker purchased P96,265 worth of food from the delivery services app at 4:47 p.m.; then ordered another P323,247 worth of food at 4:56 p.m.; another order was placed at 5:11 p.m. worth P356,517; and a purchase worth P300,851 at 5:49 p.m. In all, the total amount was P1,076,880.
Gatchalian said the fraudster managed to change the registered phone number on the card and got a one-top password (OTP).
“He knew what he was doing. I just don’t know how he will eat a million (pesos) worth of food,” he added.
In a virtual press conference, Gatchalian said this was the first time his credit card was hacked and also the first time that such large amount was charged to his credit card.
Gatchalian said he received text notifications from his bank that the phone number he was using for the credit card has been changed and that more than P1 million worth of food had been charged to his credit card from Food Panda.
He said he was not able to immediately read the notifications as he was attending to his Senate committee’s hearing on Tuesday.
He later informed the bank that it was not him who made the purchases and that he also did not change his registered phone number. The bank then immediately cancelled his credit card.
Gatchalian said he will file a formal complaint before the Valenzuela City Police Station on Thursday, and will talk to the officers of Food Panda to possibly trace the hacker.
“Obviously, I will not pay for that because I did not place those orders. Banks absorb the amount illegally charged to my credit card and as far as I know they can claim from their insurance companies in cases like this,” Gatchalian said.
