Thieves allegedly managed to draw $5000 from lost DBS ATM card without signature or pin number

A DBS account holder has alleged that thieves managed to draw $5000 from an ATM card he had lost in Bali without needing his signature or pin number, and that he was not notified of the large withdrawal by DBS.

Sharing screenshots of his conversation with DBS’ live customer support service, Facebook user RoMorpha Ankylosau wrote: “So I lost my DBS atm card in Bali and some thieves managed to get hold of the card and insert it through an emv card machine.

“Apparently, WITHOUT a pin or signature, the thieves were able to deduct 5000 sgd from the card in a span of 5 minutes without raising any eyebrows from the bank although the merchant had a dubious name like “CASHLEZ Cakrashop Bali” and “CASHLEZ Cakrashop Bandung”.

“The bank did not send any alerts to my phone neither did they notify me in any way whatsoever.”

Revealing that DBS “acknowledged that the thieves were able to steal funds even without a pin or signature because of the emv chip on the card” the netizen claimed that DBS will not be able to refund the funds to his account as the case is a lost card scenario and because they allegedly “don’t have insurance for this.”

RoMorpha added that he contacted DBS and informed them about the dubious transaction before the funds were ever released but the funds were still released to the fraudsters two days later. He wrote:

“I actually called the bank from Bali when I found my card missing and saw the funds being posted in the debit card transactions page online and told them about the dubious transactions, 2 days later, they still released the earmarked funds to the thieves saying the funds had been earmarked for release and that they could not do anything about it although previously when I had called to report the fraud, the money had just been sitting in my account waiting for transfer and the DBS staff on the phone acknowledged that.”

Expressing his frustration over the low security DBS’ ATM cards offer, the netizen wrote: “Losing the card is one thing but having 0 security on a DBS card is another. Losing the card does not necessarily mean losing money but losing a card with 0 security and no security measures or preventive measures put in place means I can go out there, buy an EMV chip card reader and swipe you guys to the cleaners.”

The Independent has contacted DBS for comment and will update this story once we receive a response.