Lifetime savings can be gone just like that. Scams happen all the time.
Someone gave a comment that there are so many scams in Malaysia. Why the authorities cannot do something about it. Erm… the authorities are but if people continue to believe scammers easily and the scammers continue to upgrade their tricks, then cases will still continue to happen. The only question is how frequently and to what extent would the losses be. In fact, banks are also doing their very best to keep their customers informed NOT to respond to any emails or calls and if needed to end the call and to call the banks directly to reconfirm.
Please do this, okay. I have also reminded everyone I love not to simply respond to any emails / calls. I continue to do this every time I read about any latest scam cases. Below is a case which happened in our neighboring country, Singapore. The money involved is also substantial as it represented the hard earned savings of many people. Due to these now they have to start all over again.
Article in thestar.com.my A man and his wife saved about S$120,000 (RM372,620) in 5 years but they lost everything when scammers using a fake text message to steal the money kept in an OCBC Bank joint savings account. The couple said, “The SMS looked like it came from OCBC and entered the usual SMS chat history from OCBC used for authentic banking services. The link took me to a site that looks exactly like the OCBC login page.” He lost all the money after the scammers gained control of his whole account.
Cybersecurity expert Anthony Lim said consumers should take the following precautions when dealing with online transactions and banking details:
• Do not act in a hurry or under duress
• Do not respond to messages asking for personal credentials, passwords or PINs
• Be suspicious of messages sent via SMS or WhatsApp asking for personal details
• Never click on links in such messages
• Never download any attached file in such messages, however interesting or attractive it may be made out to be
Separately, OCBC Bank advises consumers not to access their bank accounts through SMS links. Please do read for more details of other scams too. Article in thestar.com.my
Stay safe everyone. That hard earned money could be gone if we are not careful. It’s also possible to save the money in a few banks versus just everything into one bank. No one knows how advanced the scammers could become in the future. Perhaps some of the money could also be invested instead. Always check the details occasionally and do not think everything will just be safe where it is.
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