Manager loses RM4,200 with just one mouse click

Thursday May 12, 2011 (From StarOnLine)

KUALA LUMPUR: Accounts manager Chua Ming Choo opened a message in her e-mail informing her that there was some irregular activity occurring in her account.

The e-mail told her to click a link to her bank’s website to update her particulars for safer online banking.

Less than five minutes later, the simple mouse click cost her RM4,200.

Chua, 35, from Port Dickson, said she received the e-mail last Thursday.

She added that about two minutes after she clicked on the bank’s website, she received an SMS requesting a Transaction Authorisation Code (TAC) number.

Chua realised that something could have happened to her account and she called her bank to inform them about it.

“They told me they would block my account and I was told to change my e-pin number,” she told a press conference at the MCA Public Services and Comp laints Department here yesterday.

Chua said she then went to the nearest ATM to check her account and discovered the money missing even though she did not key in her TAC number on the website.

She lodged a police report on the same day.

Another victim, Chong Wen Shan, 24, from Teluk Intan, Perak, said he received an e-mail on May 1 informing him that his online services account was about to expire due to a database update on the bank’s system.

Chong said he was asked to update his particulars and being new to e-banking, he thought it was a normal procedure and clicked on the link.

He also keyed in his TAC number when asked and discovered that RM5,000 had gone missing from his account a few hours later.

Department head Datuk Michael Chong said the two cases were the first that he had received so far this year.

He asked Bank Negara and banks to be on alert for such scams.

“I do not rule out an inside job. Otherwise, how do these criminals know our personal details?” he added.