Woman loses RM30,000 in savings

By SHAHRIZAL AHMAD ZAINI

07 Feb 2023 03:38pm

Lai (right) together with Cai Tung in a press conference on Tuesday - FILE PIC

JOHOR BAHRU - A woman was shocked to discover her savings amounting to RM34,299 had disappeared when she was about to pay for her son's insurance on Dec 28.

According to the woman known as Lai, she was shocked to find out there was only RM20 in her account, making her unable to complete the transaction.

The 57-year-old woman said when she referred to the bank about it, she was informed that there had been five transactions including one online purchase on Dec 27 and 28, 2022.

"On that day (Dec 28), I went to the bank to take out my child's insurance money but I couldn't since there was only RM20

"I do not know why there was only RM20 considering I did not withdraw or transfer any money, but the bank said they sent me transaction authentication number (OTP) of which I didn't receive.

"I really have no idea or recognise to whom or which party received the money from these six transactions," she told reporters after filing a complaint at the Johor Jaya Assemblyman Service Center today.

Meanwhile, Johor Jaya assemblyman Liow Cai Tung said the matter needs to be taken seriously to prevent similar fraud cases from repeating in the future.

He also added the banking sector's level of security must be updated and improved constantly to prevent online fraud.

"I have raised this issue at the State Legislative Assembly before, as according to statistics, between January and June of last year alone, a total of RM25 million in losses were reported due to scams, recording a 70 per cent increase in comparison to previous year for Johor.

"We also found the owner of the account is still active and has not been blacklisted.

"We hope authorities like the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) would take appropriate action to make sure such event does not occur again," he said.