Lately, there have been a lot of scams happening. In the past, the modus operandi is quite similar where victims voluntarily transfer money from their bank accounts to mule accounts out of fear. This can be easily avoided by applying some common sense when you receive urgent phone calls.
However, in the latest scams, money has been transferred out from victims' account without their input or knowledge. Not too long ago, there was a case with one of the largest banks in Malaysia. The victim from Kuching claimed that he received a phone call and then without his divulging any information, his account had been wiped out in 2 transactions totaling about RM500K. With DAP and police involvement, the bank agreed to pay back in full the amount of money transacted out. It was somehow mentioned that the bank managed to trace back and recover the money from Celcom. It remains a mystery why Celcom and not a mule account was the recipient account in this case as it clearly did not profit the scammers unless it was a try-and-error case.
The latest similar scams involve an international bank in Malaysia. The victim received a text informing him of some money transaction from his account. Thereafter, someone allegedly from the bank called him to enquire about the transaction. The so-called officer was also trying to find out information about his other bank accounts and he became suspicious. No information was divulged in the phone conversation. Thereafter, there were large transactions of money out from his account until all his money had been wiped out from the account.
There remains the mystery of how it actually happens. Firstly, the victim did not divulge any OTP to the caller. He merely answered a phone call. Could merely answering phone calls actually open a back door for the scammers to attack the bank app on the phone? Who are the people behind the scammers? Could they be just professional hackers who can hack into the bank system and change the transaction system such that OTP or phone approvals are no longer required? Are there any insiders involved in the scams and the phone calls were just decoys to confuse the investigators? How is it that scammers can set up mule accounts to receive payments without getting caught?
All in all, the banks should be held responsible regardless of whether it is an insider job or professional hackers as both are due to the negligence of the banks. Where banks could not offer a secure platform for financial transactions, they should be penalized and not the depositors. BNM and MCMC should step up the efforts to curb these scams in an urgent fashion before depositors lose faith in the e-banking sector.
Yukitan is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.