A 57-year-old civil servant nearly fell victim to a phone scam and lost her life savings, had it not been for a quick acting Maybank employee who noticed what was going on.
Fatimah, the 57-year old government contract worker in question, had originally received a call supposedly from Maybank that accused her of involvement in unauthorised transactions and illicit mule account activities. The scammers then orchestrated a series of phone calls to Fatimah with several more individuals all posing as officials from various enforcement and regulatory agencies such as Bank Negara Malaysia and the Royal Malaysia Police.
After four hours of back and forth with the scammers, Fatimah then followed their instructions and went to the Maybank Kampung Baru branch to withdraw RM150,000 from her savings account, the money that she had been saving for not only her retirement but also to fund her children’s education.
“I was shaken by the whole ordeal. At the branch, the teller performed the usual check and asked me the purpose of withdrawal. The scammer had instructed me earlier to lie and state that the monies were for house renovation purposes,” – Fatimah
It was during this time though that Siti, the Maybank Kampung Baru Assistant Branch Manager, realised what was going on. Siti realised that there was an attempt to scam Fatimah going on, and quickly helped her freeze her accounts and filed a case report with the bank. The scammers would continue to call Fatimah though, but she said that Siti would calmly reassure her and advise her on the situation. Fatimah added that the public should also remain vigilant and be aware of the latest scam tactics to avoid becoming scam victims themselves.
Maybank claims that they have successfully protected up to RM6.4 million of their customers’ money from financial scams via branch channels in 2023, and encourages their customers to do the following:
- Be cautious of calls and/or messages from strangers claiming to be from the authorities, banks, utility providers and enforcement/government agencies.
- Never reveal your banking details as banks and authorities will never request for them over the phone.
- Do not transfer funds to unknown accounts; authorities won’t ask for immediate fund transfers to unknown third-party accounts.
For those of you who suspect that you have fallen victim to a scam, you are advised to contact the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) by calling 997. Maybank customers can also call the bank’s 24/7 fraud hotline at 03-58914744 for more assistance. You may learn more about Maybank’s security and anti-scam features too by clicking here to head to their website.
