A businessman in Malaysia lost RM1 million (or SGD$300,000) after picking up a scam call, despite not disclosing any of his personal details.
He received a call from someone claiming to be a courier who had his parcel and asked him for his bank’s OTP, but he sensed something was wrong and hung up the phone.
But he still lost RM1 million despite not disclosing any personal details to the scammers.
Berita Harian reported that the man, Mr Lee, received a phone call from someone, claiming to be from a courier company and holding on to his parcel.
They asked Lee for his bank’s One Time Password (OTP), but Lee sensed something was amiss and didn’t disclose it to them, before cancelling the call.
However, the scammers still managed to get access to his money despite him not disclosing any personal or banking information.
He checked his Maybank account after that and found out that someone had withdrawn RM1 million over two large transactions from his bank account.
Lee checked his bank transactions and saw that there were two RM500,000 transfers made to a telecommunications company.
Shocked, Lee then contacted the bank to lodge a complaint, as well as report the incident to the police.
An activist who learned of Lee’s predicament spoke about his situation during a press conference and urged Lee’s bank, Maybank to take responsibility.
Lee had apparently not received any OTPs, confirmations or notifications from the bank in relation to the two large transactions made.
neither did he download any malicious software that could’ve risked his money.