![]() ![]() I was so surprised that this was their response to such serious fraudulent cases. “The operator was nonchalant, she told me I had to fill up a feedback form and to make a police report. Kelly, a senior manager, recounted her experience with the OCBC operator: When 38-year-old Kelly (not her real name) was trying to report her scam to OCBC, she said the hotline operator did not appear fussed at all when she informed them that over S$100,000 had been transferred out to an account in the UK. Their experience trying to get answers or assistance from OCBC left them exasperated and disappointed. Two other women whom Mothership spoke to shared that they each had lost their entire life savings of about S$100,000. OCBC was “nonchalant”, had no sense of urgency Many others that Mothership spoke to relayed their anger at not being able to get through the hotline when reporting scams, and questioned why there wasn’t a dedicated hotline for emergencies like these. The couple claim they had only divulged their account login and password to the scammers after clicking on a phishing link sent via SMS through the OCBC message thread. The OTP serves as a two-factor authentication process. The couple was also baffled at how scammers were able to conduct so many high-risk activities with their account, such as changing transfer limits and setting up the OneToken, without ever giving out their one-time password (OTP).ĭenise said this was revelatory and could indicate some systemic lapses in OCBC’s account security. ![]() Instead we were left waiting while the scammers were doing their work.” Denise said. “If OCBC had been more proactive, we would still have our money. While waiting, he received an SMS that another S$2,400 had been transferred out.īy the time he got hold of an OCBC operator, he was informed that it was too late to do anything, since PayNow transactions are immediate. Horrified, he called OCBC’s hotline again, but was put on hold. Two hours later, he received another SMS suddenly informing him that S$15,718 had been transferred out via PayNow. Unable to get through, Denise’s husband carried on with his other tasks. He was also notified that his transaction limit was increased from S$5,000 to S$50,000. The OneToken is OCBC’s digital authentication tool for internet transactions. However, instead of getting a response, Denise’s husband was put on hold for over 20 minutes.ĭuring which, he received more SMS notifications that his OneToken had been activated. ![]() When 36-year-old homemaker, Denise (not her real name) and her husband realised that they may have been victims of a phishing scam, he immediately called the OCBC hotline to try to get the bank to stop the scammers in their tracks. Unable to get through hotline, money siphoned out while on hold While there have been many instances of phishing scams in Singapore, this latest round proved particularly devious, given the methods used and speed at which scammers were able to transfer funds out of victims’ accounts.įor many of the victims, however, the devastating loss of their hard-earned life savings was only made worse by what they perceived as a lackadaisical effort by the bank in helping them recover their funds.Ī total of 10 victims who Mothership spoke to echoed similar sentiments that OCBC did little to help them remedy the situation, and expressed shock at how ill-equipped the bank was at handling scam cases. ![]()
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