Scam sees Johor housewife lose over RM34,000 from her bank account without her knowing

A housewife in Johor has been in the news recently after finding that her savings of over RM34,000 have disappeared from her bank account. The 58-year-old housewife, known as Lai, had apparently found that her bank account only had RM20 left after trying to make an online transaction late last year.

Lai then went to her local bank, only to find that on the 27 and 28 of December last year, there were six different transactions made that transferred a total of RM34,299 to five different accounts. According to reports, these fraudsters first made a RM7,000 transaction to a woman known as Nurani, followed by another RM7,110 transfer to a woman known as Emmalia. They then transferred RM5,890 to Nurani again, before a RM8,800 transaction to an unnamed company. Another two transactions totaling RM3,999 and RM1,500 was then made to a Wan Muhammad.

Following this, Lai made a police report and subsequently filed a complaint to Bank Negara. According to her, the bank denied responsibility of the matter, as they say that a one-time password (OTP) was sent out that approved these transactions. Lai however denies that she received any of these OTP text messages, and adds that if she did she would’ve gone to the bank to enquire about it. She also says that she had not downloaded any apps on her smartphone nor did she click on any suspicious links prior to this, but doesn’t rule out that she had been scammed.

Johor Jaya state assemblywoman Liow Cai Tung meanwhile noted her issue, adding that they had found the bank accounts involved to still be active and had yet to be blacklisted. Liow calls for the authorities to take quick action in cases such as these.

Meanwhile, if you believe you have been scammed, you can dial 997 to reach the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC). It was set up back in October of last year as a way for authorities to coordinate a rapid response for online financial scams. If you notice unauthorised financial transactions, you should immediately call your bank’s 24/7 hotline, or the NSRC’s 997 hotline which is active from 8am to 8pm daily. You’d also need to prepare a brief description of the scam, your personal details, the scammer’s details if available and the transaction details.

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