Press Statement By Chong Chieng Jen：
I call on the members of the public to be vigilant on bank scams, to avoid falling victims to the scams and Bank Negara to be more pro-active in tracking down the ultimate culprits.
Today, another victim of bank scam has approached me for assistance.
Sometime in December, 2019, after reading a Facebook advertisement of easy loan, the victim has applied for a small loan. In his application, he has disclosed his bank account details to the prospective lender.
Thereafter, the loan did not come through but there were numerous transactions of credit and debit through his bank account. He quickly cancelled his ATM Card on the account and his affected account was thereafter closed by the Bank.
Though there was not much monetary loss, but due to the said closure, he was recently blacklisted by Bank Negara and thus suffered huge inconvenience. On this specific case, I will liaise with the bank concerned and the Bank Negara to assist to remove his name from the black-list, after all, he is a victim of a crime and not the culprit.
In the recent few months, due to the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there is an increase in bank scams and on-line cheating.
Therefore, I call on the public to be vigilant against such fraud which are normally perpetrated through phone calls, emails or Whatsapp messages. To avoid falling victim to such scams, the general rule of thumb is never to disclose any personal information or account details (bank, account number, passwords etc) to the other side.
As for Bank Negara, it should be more pro-active in tracking down the ultimate beneficiaries of the scam instead of “double-penalizing” the innocent victims of bank scams who have unsuspectingly fallen victim to such scams and thereafter to be put through all the incessant inconvenience of Bank Negara’s blacklist, which normally will continue for months and even years.
25-10-2020
Chong Chieng Jen
DAP Sarawak Chairman
