Dear DBS Bank, as well as anyone else it may concern,
I’m Desmond, and on December 8, 2022, I was defrauded of $2,263.72. My bank account was hijacked and there was an unauthorized transaction, that carried out numerous transactions to KOREAN STYLE CLOTHES BA NG.
I then contacted DBS Bank to let them know about the situation, and was told by Herfie, that DBS would be looking into it and would be returning my money as well as deactivating my debit card. I was also told that I would receive a new card within the following seven days.
7 days have passed, yet there were no updates. I called Herfie to update me on my case however hr informed me that my report submission did not go through and he will raise my report again. He promised that I will be getting my money back before the 22nd of December.
I called Herfie once more on December 22nd, and he continued to give me empty promises that I will have my money in another week. When I contacted DBS Bank again on December 30th, they suggested me to file a police report and informed me that I was in charge of my own debit card and that they had closed the issue.
On the 30th of December, I filed a police report and was told by the officers in charge that since this is an unauthorised transaction, they will not be able to open an investigation on the case.
There are undoubtedly thousands of instances of online scamming and bank hacking, therefore I’m confident that this is not the first issue that DBS Bank has dealt with. It is such a disgrace that such a big bank is Singapore is unable to protect the bank accounts of their users from such scams. $2000 is a significant quantity of money; for some people, it might even provide their entire family’s food on the table for several months. Imagine all of that money disappearing in a matter of seconds due to the bank’s inability to shield its customers from such internet fraudsters. This is simply unacceptable. This situation is even more outrageous given the bank has repeatedly broken its promises to me. It appears that they are treating us like inanimate things and do not care how much the money means to us as seen from the blame pushing and the prolonging of the updates on my case.
I take great caution when handling my bank information and bank account. And I have no doubt that many Singaporeans who have fallen victim to these frauds are also like me. In order to prevent this from happening to more Singaporeans, I implore the bank and the Singapore Police Force to take better action rather than only alerting people about scams and how to spot potential con artists.
