Chong highlights 10 financial scams, asks banks to refund victims’ losses

KUCHING (July 12): Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen has urged the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to look into 10 financial scams and refund the victims’ losses.

The Stampin MP said these 10 cases involved unauthorised transfers and/or unauthorised credit card transactions where substantial amounts of the victims’ savings were “stolen” from their bank accounts or credit cards.

“All the victims have lodged police reports in respect of the fraud. They have, through me, complained to former deputy finance minister in January last year.

“So far, none has received any positive feedback from the police, the MoF or Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM),” he said in a letter addressed to Deputy Finance Minister Lim Hui Ying.

Chong said some of these victims did not download any mobile app and yet their accounts were hacked and savings transferred and/or credit card charged without their knowledge.

He said none of these victims received any one-time password (OTP) or personal access code (PAC) notifications for the unauthorised transactions.

“But the banks claimed that since the OTP and PAC notifications have been sent out, regardless whether they have actually received these notifications, the banks refused to compensate them for their losses,” he lamented.

According to Chong, one of the victims had never performed any Internet banking transaction.

“She did not even know that her account can be accessed through the Internet. She also did not download any mobile app, yet her money in her bank account was transferred out without her knowledge and authorisation,” he explained.

He further added that this victim’s fixed deposit was uplifted and the fund therein transferred into her savings account and thereafter transferred out to a third party’s account.

He said some of these victims did download a mobile app which caused the unauthorised transfers of funds from their accounts.

“However, they have responded almost immediately to inform the banks, yet the banks could do nothing to help and will not compensate them for their losses.

“Another victim did not download any mobile app. Upon receiving notifications of two unauthorised charges to her credit card, she immediately called to inform the bank, but the bank refused to cancel the charges,” he added.

Chong opined that if these scams were caused by some weaknesses in the bank’s system, the bank should compensate the victims.

As such, he asked whether the banks involved in the 10 cases had proven that there was no weakness in their system, and further asked how the banks involved proved so.

According to him, in almost all the 10 cases, the OTP or PAC sent out by the bank’s system did not reach the account holders.

Despite this, he said the banks claimed that the OTP or PAC verification notices were interjected by the scammer and the OTP or PAC were sent back by the scammers to the bank’s system to verify the unlawful transactions.

“The banks knew about the technical problem with their OTP/PAC system, yet took a long time to put in extra precautionary measures. Recipient accounts were mule accounts in that the account holder cannot be traced. In some cases, the recipient banks refused to disclose the identity of these account holders,” he claimed.

Chong also asked whether the banks involved would consider making reasonable compensation even if they can prove that the 10 scams were due to the negligence of the victims.

“We sincerely hope that MoF will intervene proactively so that the victims can be vindicated and have their money returned to them,” he said.