Man In M’sia Loses S$300K Minutes After Answering Scam Call, Money Transferred To Telco Company

Man In Malaysia Picks Up Scam Call, Loses S$300K

Recently, scammers targeted a businessman in Malaysia with a perplexing scam call scheme.

The man, surnamed Lee, had picked up a phone call from someone who claimed to be from a courier company.

Source: Onur Binay on Unsplash, for illustration purposes only

However, Mr Lee suspected something fishy when the caller asked for his bank account’s one-time password (OTP).

Despite ending the call, the victim allegedly lost RM1 million (S$300,000) from his bank account in a matter of minutes.

Loses large sum of money from bank account

According to Berita Harian (BH), Mr Lee first received a phone call from someone who claimed to have his parcel.

The caller alleged that they were from a national courier company and asked Lee to provide his bank OTP.

Sensing something amiss, Mr Lee proceeded to cancel the call.

Unfortunately for Mr Lee, he did not have to disclose any personal details for the scammers to retrieve his money.

Upon checking his Maybank account after the call, he realised that someone had withdrawn a large sum of money.

Money transferred to local telco

BH reported that Mr Lee lost RM1 million (S$302,000) over two large transactions.

Source: breizhatao on Freepik

Based on his bank transactions, two RM500,000 (S$150,000) transfers were made to a local telecommunications company.

Following the shocking realisation, Lee reached out to the bank to file a complaint and subsequently made a police report.

Activist urges Maybank to take responsibility

Speaking about Lee’s case at a press conference, Michael Kong Feng Nian, an activist under Sarawak DAP, urged Maybank to take responsibility.

He said that Mr Lee failed to receive any OTP or confirmation from the bank regarding the two large transactions.

Furthermore, Mr Kong noted that Mr Lee had not downloaded any malicious software (malware) that could have put his money at risk.

As such, the latter was a true victim of bank fraud.

Hope scam call victim gets his money back

With scam cases being increasingly popular not just in Malaysia but also in Singapore, it’s important to be vigilant.

Mr Lee’s case is an unfortunate example that one can easily fall prey to scammers at any time.

Hopefully, he will receive a resolution to this baffling situation soon.

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Featured image adapted from Onur Binay on Unsplash and breizhatao on Freepik, for illustration purposes only.