Common ruses

The “officer” pressured Mr Anwar to keep mum about the case under threat of being placed “in custody”, and instructed him to provide all banking details for a “financial check”. He did so, believing it was only right to comply.

The “officer” also took pre-emptive action by telling Mr Anwar that if the bank called to verify a transaction, he should inform them it was his doing. However, red flags were raised when Mr Anwar could not answer further queries from an alert Maybank officer about the beneficiary details of the transfers.

In another case, a Mr Tan (not his real name) was also tricked by a “police officer” into sharing personal details like his NRIC as well as iBanking user ID, password and One-Time Password (OTP). When his brother warned him it could be a scam, he immediately headed to the bank for verification.

In both cases, the victims mistook scammers for the authorities but Maybank’s timely intervention saved them from further financial losses.

 

Proactive intervention and close collaboration

Maybank takes the initiative to protect customers through its frontline staff, who are trained to spot suspicious activity, as well as effective protocols which flag suspicious transactions - such as its fraud monitoring system.

In Mr Anwar’s case, Maybank’s fraud monitoring flagged the scammer’s transactions out of his account. Bank authorisers, who approve banking transactions, alerted Maybank’s Digital Banking Fraud team after repeatedly calling Mr Anwar and detecting an issue.

The Digital Banking Fraud Team collaborated with the police’s Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) to trace the funds. Police officers were then sent to Mr Anwar’s home to assure him that the legitimate authorities were now on the case. Soon after, he filed a police report and retrieved banking access, preventing scammers from causing further damage.

Likewise for Mr Tan, Maybank staff acted quickly to thwart further theft by blocking his online banking account. Even before he made a police report, the Digital Banking Fraud team had alerted ASC based on the initial transfers. Maybank staff then worked with ASC to recover $80,000 that had been siphoned off earlier by providing details on the previous transactions.

Stay vigilant

Anyone could fall prey to scams. Once you suspect you have been scammed, call Maybank’s hotline at 1800-MAYBANK (1800-629 2265) immediately to suspend your digital banking access.

The bank has also tightened security against scams, including the removal of all clickable links from e-mails and SMSes. Vigilance, however, is still the best defence. Learn how you can protect yourself and your loved ones against scams here.