M'sians Are Losing Money On BigPay In New Online Scam. Here's Their Crafty Modus Operandi
The company seems to be aware of the scam affecting their customers and has updated its security information page.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 10 Jul 2020, 05:37 PM — Updated almost 4 years ago
Many netizens have taken to social media to warn members of the public about a new online scam that targets BigPay users
BigPay is a payment system - owned by AirAsia - that allows users to pay with a prepaid card or mobile app.
On Twitter and Facebook, countless netizens shared their experiences of receiving a phone call from people who claimed to be personnel from BigPay.
SAYS has sighted at least eight different phone numbers which netizens claimed to be fraudsters.
A Twitter user lamented that she lost RM900 yesterday, 9 July, when she received a call asking for her birthdate
Twitter user @anna_mzm shared her experience with a netizen who also went through the same scam. Based on the tweets, it is apparent that the scammers only needed victims' birthdates to allow transactions to go through.
"It's too late for me to retrieve my money. I became suspicious after giving the caller my birthdate," said Anna.
"They told me not to log into BigPay. When I hung up the call and check my BigPay app, I realised they had hacked into my account. Since my RHB card is linked to BigPay, I lost RM900. I felt like dying when I found out."
Anna told SAYS that she only gave the scammer her birthdate and nothing else.
However, in a statement provided to SAYS, BigPay said that Anna had given her One-Time Pin (OTP) to the scammers as well, "which ultimately enabled the transaction that resulted in her losing RM999, which was unfortunate".
Another modus operandi is to call unsuspecting Malaysians via WhatsApp and tell them that they have a transaction that needs to be reviewed or they have won thousands of BigPoint credits
"Recently, there are people who want to scam money via BigPay. 'Congratulations on winning RM4.5k'," a person tweeted on Thursday.
"The scammer was even unfazed when I lied to them that I'm a police officer from Bukit Aman."
Speaking to SAYS, one woman who experienced the scam as well said that she received a money request notification on BigPay at the same minute she received the scam call.
"Look at the timestamps. It's the same - 10.06pm," said insurance agent Shuwen Phua while showing screenshots as proof.
Fortunately for her, she heard about the scam surrounding BigPay from one of her friends recently. She quickly hung up the phone before the scammer could even extort any information from her.
Some netizens even claimed that the scammers had the ability to generate fake OTP.
BigPay seems to be aware of the scam affecting their customers and has today, 10 July, updated its security information page
The company said that scammers are getting creative with finding new ways to steal money from their users. BigPay says frauds can happen with these four methods:
- Calls from unknown numbers asking you for your personal information such as your date of birth, OTP, and more to verify your identity in order to receive the claimed cash prizes.
- Random text messages on your phone or personal messages on social media requesting that you share your personal information because something is wrong with your account.
- Impersonating their brand through a few phishing sites claiming that you've won cash prizes.
- Invitations to WhatsApp groups where you'll be invited to be 'authorised sales agents' on behalf of brands.
BigPay told SAYS that there is no way scammers can hack into users' accounts with just knowing their date of birth.
The company has also been responding to tweets, saying that BigPay personnel does not call their customers via WhatsApp.
For more information, check out BigPay's advisory on 'how to spot scams' here.
