MANILA, Philippines – State-run Land Bank of the Philippines said its systems were not hacked, following claims of teachers losing as much as P121,000 of their life savings in their payroll accounts.

In a statement on Monday, January 24, Landbank said its systems remain “safe and secure,” but noted that based on its investigation, teachers were victims of a phishing scam which compromised their personal information.

The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) said some of its members lost money ranging from P26,000 to P121,000 from their Landbank accounts, which were then transferred to other banks as well as GCash accounts.

William Montecalvo, a teacher of San Bartolome High School in Quezon City, said Landbank sent one-time password verification messages 13 times, which led him to report the incident. 

“Unfortunately, when he checked the balance a day after, an amount of P121,000 was stolen and transferred to a GCash account,” TDC said.

A similar incident happened to Crisanto Cruz, a teacher of Amaya School of Home Industries in Cavite, where he lost a total of P84,815 from his life savings.

“The bank has already reached out to the affected customers and is working on the resolution of these isolated cases at the soonest possible time,” Landbank said.

Landbank advised the public not to click on suspicious links and avoid sharing personal information to others.

“Official Landbank representatives will never ask for the critical financial information of customers,” the bank said.

Customers may contact their respective branch, call customer care hotlines (02) 84057000 or 1-800-10-405-7000, or email customercare@mail.landbank.com for complaints. – Rappler.com