Singapore – A United Overseas Bank (UOB) staff member allegedly fell prey to an impersonation scam, releasing the personal details of over 1,100 of the bank’s clients.
“Preliminary findings show that a UOB employee had allegedly fallen prey to a China police impersonation scam and had been deceived into disclosing the information of these Chinese nationals with Singapore-based accounts,” noted UOB in a news release on Friday (May 7).
The bank has written to all affected clients and has taken several precautionary measures to protect them as they might be targeted by scammers.
Such measures include disabling their internet and mobile banking access, resetting their digital banking access and stepping up account monitoring of affected accounts.
The bank has also set up an SMS alert threshold of S$1 for any online funds transfer. Scam protection notices were posted on the login pages of UOB Personal Internet Banking and UOB Might to inform the public of the scams.
“We expect the highest standards of professional conduct from our people at all times as part of maintaining the trust our customers place in us,” said UOB.
Meanwhile, the employee involved in this matter has been suspended and is assisting the police with their investigations.
UOB noted that it is working closely with the Singapore Police Force on their investigations.
UOB apologised to its customers that have been placed in such a position. “We will continue to make every effort with them on keeping their accounts safe.”
There have been similar cases in the past of scammers pretending to be police officers in China and informing their victims that their credit or debit card details have been compromised and used in fraudulent transactions.
The victims would then be advised to transfer their money for investigations. In the process, some of the victims disclosed their banking credentials or cash to the scammers./TISG
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