In a bid to intensify its fight against fraud and scammers, GoTyme Bank, a collaboration between the Gokongwei group of companies and the multi-country digital banking Tyme Group, has set up its Fraud and Crime Division.

The division will be manned by Jason Brasileño, GoTyme’s former head of fraud strategy, with a mandate to consolidate the bank’s defense against fraud, improve fraud detection, and catch and prosecute fraudsters and scammers.

GoTyme Bank recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the country’s lead agency for preventing and suppressing cybercrime, to boost their collaboration for real-time safeguards against cybercrime.

GoTyme is also forging collaborations with other government agencies, such as the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Justice, to catch cybercriminals.

Further, GoTyme Bank will work closely with authorities, including banking industry associations, to improve legislation that will put safeguards against cases of fraud and scams, and help law enforcement agencies effectively monitor and investigate reported fraud cases.

Internally, GoTyme Bank is enhancing its “know your customer” or KYC process of verifying the identity and address of customers before and after transactions. It has implemented a state-of-the-art AI-driven system to track suspected fraudulent transactions as it improves its monitoring system of transactions and accounts through a set of predefined rules based on recognized patterns of fraudulent activities or behavior.

GoTyme Bank assures the public that there is a human being answering an alleged victim’s call.

A scam victim can call the GoTyme Bank hotline #GO8888 to report a fraud case and file a police report as soon as possible.

Albert Tinio, GoTyme Bank’s co-CEO, says, “We believe security is a two-pronged approach. While we invest in the latest and greatest security technology, we know that user education plays a vital role. We teach everyone how to identify these scams and encourage them to immediately report any suspicious activity to us and the police.”

He adds that by empowering users with knowledge and a reporting system, GoTyme Bank seeks to “create an environment where scammers have a harder time succeeding. When users are alert and aware, it deters scammers from attempting to exploit them.” GoTyme Bank urges customers to scam-proof their resources and do fast scam reporting.