"Gone Within A Minute" – Woman Loses RM14,360 Of Savings In Unauthorised Bank Transfers
She said the hackers were also able to change her transfer limit without a Transaction Authorisation Code (TAC).
By May Vin Ang — 13 Jun 2022, 12:16 PM
A woman from Petaling Jaya, Selangor could not believe her eyes when RM14,360 of her savings was transferred out of her bank account without her consent within the span of a minute
In a post on 6 June, Facebook user Kong Jia Xin shared how hackers were able to take money out of her savings account without any prior authorisation or security prompts to her.
"Today, my bank account was hacked," she wrote. "There were two unauthorised transactions, which totalled over RM14,000, transferred within one minute to a stranger without my consent."
At 8.09pm on Monday night, 6 June, the 29-year-old received a message out of the blue, informing her that a DuitNow transfer of RM9,000 was made to someone she did not know
In the next few seconds, she received two more messages informing her that her bank account limit was changed, and a further RM5,360 was transferred to a Nasri Bin Ali.
"From the screenshot, you can see the hacker was able to change my limit without [me] providing a Transaction Authorisation Code (TAC) to them and [they transferred] the amount they wanted," Kong wrote, adding that she has seen others losing their money without ever receiving a TAC too.
She called Public Bank immediately, and was able to report the situation to a customer support agent within 20 minutes
At 8.40pm, Kong said a case manager called her back to inform her that her situation is being handled and they will let her know of an outcome in two weeks.
"From the case manager, there is no promise that I will get my money back, even though I have reported the issue immediately and confirmed the transaction was not approved by myself," she said, disappointed that there was no assurance of getting her money back.
"Seems like [there is] nothing I can do besides wait in this helpless situation."
She also clarified that she had not entered any phishing website or downloaded any Android Package Kits (APKs) or illegal software on her phone.
"The only thing that happened before the hack [was that] I was using the PBe online banking application to pay my credit card instalment," she wrote.
Kong told SAYS that, as of writing, there have been no updates from the bank.
Kong's Facebook post has since been shared over 2,700 times, with social media users expressing their worry about the incident
Some netizens added that similar incidents have been happening recently at other local banks.
SAYS has reached out to Public Bank for a statement on the issue, as well as to ask about measures to safeguard their customers' accounts.
Beware of downloading apps of unknown origin that may allow hackers to gain access to your bank account:
