KUCHING: Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen has reached out to the Finance Ministry in his continuing push to help those who had lost money through unauthorised bank transfers and credit card transactions.
He submitted a letter containing details on 10 such cases when he paid a courtesy visit to Deputy Finance Minister II Steven Sim, today (Jan 31).
In the letter, he also requested that the Ministry of Finance (MoF) intervene so that more thorough investigations can be carried out, money trail traced, culprits brought to book and the victims compensated for their losses.
Chong who has often raised the problem at hand proposed policies which will give more protection for depositors rather than the banks and measures banks can adopt to reduce scam transactions to help prevent losses to their account holders.
In the letter he expressed delight that the relevant authority had successfully retrieved the scammed money for a retiree.
“Therefore, it is with great hope that I forward herewith the cases of 10 victims of bank scams involving unauthorised transfers and unauthorised credit card transactions where substantial amount of their savings were literally ‘stolen’ from their bank accounts or credit cards.
“All the victims have lodged police reports in respect of the fraud, but so far none has received any feedback from the police whether any action has been taken. They have also filed their claims with the banks but the banks have rejected all their claims,” he said.
Chong, who is Stampin MP, then listed out the victims of scams which include three individuals who did not download any apps onto their handphones yet their accounts were hacked and savings transferred out and/or credit card charged without their knowledge.
Another involved a woman who said she had never performed any internet banking transaction and did not download any apps yet her money in her account was transferred out without her knowledge and authorisation; a total sum of RM6,984 being transferred out from another victim’s bank account via seven transfers without his knowledge and authorisation; four individuals who admitted that they had downloaded an application which caused unathorised transfers of fund but who responded immediately to inform the banks yet the banks could do nothing to help and compensate for their losses; and about a woman who received notifications of two unauthorised charges to her credit card where she immediately called to inform the bank despite the fact that the charges were for the purchase through the Shopee account, and the bank refused to cancel charges.
Chong called on the banks to not push their responsibilities away that the depositors have downloaded certain applications thereby compromising the information of their accounts.
“Even if the depositors have wrongly downloaded the ‘malicious’ apps, they should not be penalised by losing their whole life savings.
“There are still precautionary measures available to the banks to help minimise their losses, but that was not done,” he said.
Chong added that in the era where e-commerce and online purchases is a way of life it is the duty of the government to regulate where the loss should fall.
“Beside banks, e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Lazada, Grab etc, should also be roped in together with the banks so that these platforms will not be used as a platform to facilitate such fraud and scams,” he said.
