KUCHING: A 74-year-old woman, Hii, has fallen victim to a scam that resulted in an unauthorised charge of RM15,000 to her credit card.
Despite her swift action to notify her bank and request a halt to the transaction, the bank allowed it to proceed and later compelled her to pay the unauthorised charge.
According to a statement by Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Stampin Chong Chieng Jen, the incident began on April 22 last year when Hii received a scam call.
Realising the potential fraud, she immediately visited the bank’s Jalan Song Thian Cheok branch to report the scam and requested that any transactions be stopped. Despite assurances from the bank officer that no transactions were recorded at the time, Mdm Hii preemptively terminated her credit card.
However, Chong said, a month later, her credit card statement revealed two fraudulent charges amounting to RM14,897.50 to RM4,949 to TNG Ewallet and RM9,948.50 to BigPay Malaysia.
He said despite filing a dispute with the bank, the charges were not cancelled. The bank then deducted RM1,350 from her savings account without authorisation and later withheld two STR payments of RM150 each, redirecting them to pay off the scam transactions.
Chong has written to Bank Negara Malaysia to lodge a formal complaint against the bank, citing several failures:
- The bank allowed the scam transactions to proceed despite early notification.
- The bank did not take prompt action to freeze or reverse the fraudulent charges.
- There was a lack of communication with relevant parties such as TNG Ewallet and BigPay.
Chong highlighted that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had previously announced that banks should bear the responsibility for losses caused by scams if their systems were at fault.
“In this case, the bank’s system and its officer’s inaction are clearly at fault.
“I urge Bank Negara Malaysia to protect the rights of the rakyat by ensuring the bank cancels the fraudulent charges and refunds Mdm Hii the RM1,650 deducted without her consent,” said Chong.
Chong has also forwarded a copy of the complaint to the Ministry of Finance and called for swift action to prevent similar incidents from affecting others.
By Connie Chieng