Padungan rep steps in after bank offers partial refund to victim left with RM3.98 following fraud

Chong (right) and Chai during a meeting in the former's office on April 1, 2026.

By DayakDaily Team

KUCHING, April 1: A long-time customer of a national bank was left stunned after discovering that his account had been fraudulently drained, leaving only RM3.98 from thousands of ringgit in savings yet he has struggled to obtain full compensation.

Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak and Padungan assemblyman, Chong Chieng Jen, exposed the case today during a Facebook livestream, highlighting serious gaps in the bank’s security and customer protection mechanisms.

“The victim, Mr Chai, who has been with the bank for many years, was shocked earlier this year to find that his savings account, which originally held around RM5,000 to RM6,000, had been emptied without his knowledge.

“Upon reviewing his bank statements, Chai discovered numerous unusual transactions dating back to January and February last year. On Jan 13, 2025 alone, multiple overseas charges of exactly RM79.99 each were recorded from locations in the United States, alongside deductions from places such as the Microsoft Store in Singapore,” Chong disclosed in a statement today.

After discovering the problem, Chai immediately reported it to the bank. Counter staff were friendly and assisted him in July 2025 to submit a dispute complaint for a total loss of RM4,838.67.

Despite acknowledging months later that the transactions were fraudulent and unauthorised, the bank reportedly only refunded about RM1,300. The bank cited that some transactions occurred too long ago and were beyond the processing period, and therefore could not be handled.

Chong raised serious concerns about the incident. He noted that the bank’s alert system failed to detect multiple similar overseas transactions occurring within a short period, preventing timely interception or freezing of the account.

“Chai also did not receive any SMS or app push notifications alerting him to debit card charges during the months-long fraud,” he said, criticising the bank for providing partial compensation and ignoring the remaining balance despite acknowledging that the transactions were unauthorised.

He stressed that as one of Malaysia’s largest banks, the institution should set a benchmark in business integrity by fully refunding the stolen funds instead of offering only a token amount.

“The bank’s security and alert systems had loopholes that allowed Chai’s funds to be stolen without his knowledge, and customers should not bear the cost of such failures,” he said.

Chong pledged to assist Chai in submitting records of the unusual overseas transactions to both the bank’s top management and Bank Negara Malaysia, with the goal of recovering the full remaining RM4,838.67.

He added that the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had repeatedly stated that if fraud occurs due to bank system vulnerabilities, the bank must compensate the victim.

“In this case, it is clear that the fraud resulted from flaws in the bank’s alert system,” he added.

Chong said he would continue to follow up on the case and provide all necessary support until Chai receives the full stolen amount. — DayakDaily