GCash has deactivated more than 3,200 merchants on its platform after discovering their involvement in illegal activities, including online gambling and various scam operations.
The merchants involved in this incident have had their access to GCash services permanently terminated due to investigations into unlawful and suspicious activity connected to their accounts, according to GCash. The purpose of this step taken by GCash is to prevent scammers from using the GCash to illegally process transactions.
According to GCash, investigations found that each scammer used a variety of methods to commit fraud, such as QR code masking and building fake payment pages that closely resemble actual businesses. Gcash reported that some websites created to look like the official Gcash interface led customers to believe that they were making payments to verified merchants, but the money was in fact being sent to a scam operator.
According to GCash, it does not have any partnerships or formal relationships with the above-mentioned criminals. Rather, GCash considers them independent entities that were attempting to exploit well-established digital payment networks to commit illegal acts. GCash reports that it has added systems to enhance its ability to monitor the activities of all of its merchants and automatically identify and suspend accounts that exhibit any type of suspicious activity and report those accounts to law enforcement officials.
According to Miguel Geronilla, Chief Information and Security Officer at GCash, removing unauthorized merchants helps protect Filipino users and strengthen trust in the country’s digital financial ecosystem.
The company also recommends that users carefully review the merchant name and transaction details before confirming payments through QRPh. Customers should also avoid sending money to personal wallets when making purchases, as legitimate merchants do not require this method. In addition, GCash warned users to be cautious of QR payment requests received through messages, emails, or social media, as these are commonly used by scammers to distribute fraudulent payment links.
