, the bank said that the updated amount lost to scammers in the series of phishing scams is up to){kind=link}
In an OCBC update today (30 Jan), the bank said that the updated amount lost to scammers in the series of phishing scams is up to $13.7 million from the $8.5 million previously reported in December.
The number of victims who have came forward to report losses has also gone up to 790, up from the previous 469 who reported.
Earlier figures based on Police reports
Earlier figures reported were based on the number of reports made by the victims to the Police, and the increase constitutes largely of victims who have came forward to report it to the bank in January.
The bank has also reached out to victims who were not aware that they had become a victim of a scam and have successfully prevented 200 more of their customers from falling prey to the scammers.
80 percent of the amount that was scammed was between the period of 23 December to 30 December 2021.
In the span of that week, the bank received 40 percent more in terms of call volumes.
Victims mostly provided scammers personal details
The bank also said that through their intensive investigations, victims who had lost money to the scammers were discovered to have provided their personal credentials to the scammers which enabled them to gain control of their accounts to make illegal transactions.
However, the bank had also made a one time goodwill gesture to all affected by reimbursing them the amount which they had lost.
This is because they factored in the slow response time of their customer services which felt short of the bank’s targets and meeting them could have reduced some of the scam cases of their customers.
Goodwill payouts given out
As of Sunday, OCBC has already made arrangements for the goodwill payouts, and although arrangements have been made, not all payments have been completed yet.
There are also no more illegal transactions related to the scam made since the goodwill payouts have been made and the bank is working to ensure that all their customer’s funds in the bank remain safe and secure.
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