OCBC phishing scam affected 790 victims; total loss reached S$13.7 million

Singapore — In a statement issued on Sunday (Jan 30), OCBC Bank said that the total amount lost in last month’s phishing scam is at S$13.7 million and 790 people in all had been victimised in the scam.

These figures were updated from the earlier report this month that there had been nearly 470 OCBC customers who had fallen prey to the scam and who had lost at least S$8.5 million.

The phishing scam had sent texts impersonating the bank, which caused victims to provide their log-in data and PINs for scammers to get access to customers’ accounts.

The bank announced on Jan 19 that it would make full goodwill payouts to all the victims and, in its latest update, said that all these payments had been completed.

Moreover, OCBC wrote that there had been no additional fraudulent transactions in relation to the phishing scam in the past few weeks.

The statement also said that 80 per cent of the total amount the victims lost occurred due to scams that took place between Dec 23 and 30, 2021. At this point, OCBC’s contact centre saw an over 40 per cent increase in the number of calls it received.

OCBC clarified that the original figure that there had been 469 victims and the total loss was S$8.5 million had been based on reports the victims had filed with the police by Dec 30 of last year.

In the days that followed, more police reports were filed and submitted to the bank.

Additionally, OCBC contacted its customers who were unaware that they have been scammed.

However, upon tightening its cybersecurity measures after the initial wave of scams, the bank said that over 200 customers were prevented from being similarly victimised.

“OCBC Bank’s investigation has confirmed that victims who fell prey had provided their online banking log-in credentials and one-time PINs to phishing websites, thereby enabling the scammers to take over their bank accounts and make fraudulent transactions. 

Nonetheless, OCBC Bank decided to make the full payout as a one-off gesture of goodwill given the circumstances of this scam. We also took into consideration that our customer service and response fell short of our own expectations, which could have affected loss mitigation in some of the cases.

OCBC Bank remains committed to ensuring that our customers’ funds remain safe and will continue to improve our customer service and response,” the bank added. /TISG

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