February 17, 2017

State deposit insurer Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) warns the public against a scam designed to dupe people into parting with their hard-earned money in exchange for purported cash winnings from bogus raffle draws. The PDIC said that the scam is designed to lure the public into giving cash for the empty promise of a prize from a non-existent raffle.

In an Advisory posted in its website, PDIC said that in the modus operandi, target victims receive calls about their so-called winnings involving cash prizes in raffle draws allegedly conducted by a certain media network. The target victims are then instructed to contact a person to claim their prize. When called, this person will require the target victims to pay a certain amount via a remittance agency for “purposes of PDIC insurance.”

According to the Advisory, PDIC is not involved in any raffle draw or other contests with media networks and other organizations.

As state deposit insurer, PDIC insures deposits in banks up to the maximum deposit insurance coverage of PHP500,000 per depositor per bank. The Advisory clarified that only deposits placed in banks are covered by PDIC’s deposit insurance and claim for deposit insurance may be made only upon closure of the bank.

In November last year, PDIC warned the public of another scam where certain individuals represented themselves either as officers of PDIC or related government agencies and claimed that, for a fee, they could assist depositors in expediting payment of deposit insurance claims and facilitating payment of claims even beyond the MDIC.

Any information about scams or potential scams may be reported directly to the PDIC Public Assistance Department through telephone numbers 841-4630 or 841-4631 (for callers within Metro Manila) and 1-800-1-888-7342 or 1-800-1-888-PDIC (for callers outside Metro Manila), or through e-mail at pad@pdic.gov.ph or send a private message at Facebook through www.facebook.com/OfficialPDIC.

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The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) was established on June 22, 1963 by Republic Act 3591 to provide depositor protection and help maintain stability in the financial system by providing deposit insurance. Effective June 1, 2009, the maximum deposit insurance coverage is P500,000 per depositor. All deposit accounts by a depositor in a closed bank maintained in the same right and capacity shall be added together. A joint account shall be insured separately from any individually-owned deposit account.

PDIC news/press releases and other information are available at the website, www.pdic.gov.ph.