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KUALA LUMPUR: When a customer requested to withdraw RM2.8mil from his account to be transferred to a company for investment, an alert bank staff sensed that something was amiss.
"I'm familiar with this customer and the nature of his business seems to be at odds with the investment purposes into that company.
"So I asked for documentation and he showed an invoice that lacked crucial details like official letterhead and stamping. I told him that this is not right," said Public Bank banking service manager Letchumy Jayamaran.
Despite raising her concerns, Letchumy said the customer who was accompanied by his son insisted on performing the transaction. She made a call to the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) for assistance as part of an intervention measure. Police then revealed that the company has been linked to a number of investment scam reports.
After sharing the information with the customer, he agreed not to proceed with his withdrawal request.
At the Bank Heroes Recognition event in KL today (March 3), Letchumy was one of 67 employees honoured by the banking industry for their role in preventing customers from transferring over RM12.4mil in fraudulent transactions in 2024.
Chairman of the National Taskforce to Combat Fraud and Group CEO of Community Financial Services at Maybank, Syed Ahmad Taufik Albar said proactive efforts by bank staff have been instrumental in safeguarding the hard-earned money of the Malaysian public.
"As an industry, we take immense pride in the dedication of bank staff across various banks, who serve as frontline defenders against financial scams," said Syed Ahmad Taufik.
He shared that staff have been trained to detect 'red flags' when engaging with customers who want to perform banking transactions, adding that scammers would convince potential victims to use certain excuses.
"Those things that they have been coached to say are what we employ in our training to make sure that the staff can detect as red flags," he said.
Other success stories include how three staff members – Azmi Mustafa, Yusrina Mohd Yusop and Che Mazuriana – at a Maybank branch in Selangor intervened when a customer wanted to transfer RM390,000 from a fixed deposit account to multiple bank accounts. By alerting the customer's family member, they were able to prevent the individual from becoming a potential scam victim.
Syed Ahmad Taufik said the honoured staff members from 10 banks including Maybank, CIMB and UOB Bank, were specially vetted and selected by PDRM.
Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Sri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said scams have been a pervasive concern due to the increasingly sophisticated nature of various tech tools that are being misused to prey on victims.
He said in 2024 last year, the total number of scam cases reached 35,368 resulting in financial losses amounting to RM1.6bil.
"These cases represent 84.5% of total 41,701 commercial crime cases reported last year," he added.
Ramli reminded members of the public to never engage with callers claiming to be an authorative figure as they will never contact anyone personally on the phone unless they have had a prior engagement.
"Please, they won't call you. They won't pass the call from one authority to another as if they are having a roundtable discussion. Please, please please. Don't trust and do not believe these (callers) at all. I've been frothing at the mouth saying this," he said, adding that people should also never trust investment scams introduced through social media.
The Bank Heroes Recognition event is part of the #JanganKenaScam campaign, a nationwide scam awareness initiative by The Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) and The Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM).
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