Friday, June 15, 2007
TAKE NOTE: Scamming of MoneyMan with chinese accent scamming money
Puzzling - these fake OCBC messages By Lin Yanqin, TODAY Posted: 15 June 2007 0611 hrs
SINGAPORE : He received a text message on his mobile phone claiming to be from OCBC Bank, informing him that he had spent $2,350 at Takashimaya, and asking him to call the bank to verify the transaction.
Mr John Tan was suspicious, as he had neither spent money at Takashimaya nor held any OCBC card. But curiosity made him phone the number in the message.
The man who answered his call spoke in Chinese, claiming to be from OCBC's Chinese department. "He had a Chinese accent, and didn't ask me for any details. Just told me to give him my number and said someone would call me back," said Mr Tan. "It was very silly, I don't know what they were after."
Mr Tan telephoned OCBC and was told the SMS message was one of "a handful" of similar fraudulent messages reported to the bank in the past three days.
The message, in Chinese, informed recipients that their credit cards had been used for purchases, and asked them to call a number to verify whether they had used the cards at those outlets.
"It is not our policy to send our customers SMSes or emails asking them for their personal information or to confirm a specific credit card transaction,"; said Mr Jack Foo, OCBC Bank's head of operational risk, in an email. "Neither will we indicate our customers' account or transaction details in our SMSes or emails."
He also assured customers their accounts with the bank were "safe". The bank has reported the matter to the police, and is assisting in the investigation.
Customers are advised not to respond to such SMSes, and to phone the bank at 1800-363 3333 if they need clarification.
Pillow wrote this@10:43 PM;
