Security News > 2022 > January > Singapore monetary authority threatens action on bank over widespread phishing scam
The Monetary Authority of Singapore says it is considering supervisory action against Southeast Asia's second largest bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, which was criticised for its incident response to a widespread phishing scheme across the island nation.
"Monetary Authority Singapore takes a serious view of the recent phishing scams involving OCBC Bank. They have significantly impacted several customers. OCBC has acknowledged that its incident response and customer service should have been better. MAS has been following up with the bank on these and broader issues relating to the incident," said MAS deputy managing director Ms Ho Hern Shin in a statement to The Register.
By the end of the month, the Singapore Police Department reported the scam had affected 469 customers and taken over SG$8.5m. Victims receive an unsolicited SMS that appears to be from the bank and asks the account holder to click a link to resolve account issues.
"Once the funds have been fraudulently transferred out of the victim's bank account, it would be challenging and difficult to recover the stolen monies," said the police in a canned statement.
The bank said it has also reached out to vulnerable customers who might not be aware of banking dangers.
"I want to assure our customers and members of the public that our banking systems and digital banking platforms are safe and secure. Digital banking remains a convenient way to do banking. We do not want this scam to take that away from us," said OBCB CEO Helen Wong in the company's January 17th canned statement.