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SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Singaporean Melvin Chan’s recent holiday with his wife to Japan turned into a nightmare after he discovered their bank accounts frozen and credit cards canceled by identity thieves who called the banks pretending to be them.
Chan, 35, was at Tokyo DisneySea theme park on Oct. 7 when he and his wife realized none of their cards were working.
“DisneySea is a cashless attraction. Almost everything there requires you to pay by card – from restaurants to express passes for rides. I think maybe only the souvenir shops accepted cash payments,” Chan said.
He and his wife spent three hours calling DBS, UOB and OCBC from the theme park – racking up $200 in roaming charges – and later found out their cards had been canceled by someone else who called the banks.
This person, posing as Chan, asked the banks to do this under the pretext that he had lost his assets.
“We were shocked to discover that all my credit cards had been canceled and our bank accounts had been frozen. The bank officials told us that we had to be back in Singapore to hire them again,” said Chan, who reported the matter to police.
“My wife is Thai… so we transferred money from her bank account in Thailand to my YouTrip travel card. She has a limited balance in that account and we continued the rest of the trip with limited funds.”
The police confirm that a report has been filed and are investigating the matter.
He added that he didn’t lose any money from his accounts when this happened. But this incident came to light as banks came under increasing pressure to protect customers’ funds from scams and fraud.
Police figures show that scam victims in Singapore lost $385.6 million in the first six months of 2024, with a record 26,587 cases recorded in the period.
UOB and OCBC told The Straits Times that safeguarding the money in their customers’ accounts is their top priority and blocking and canceling cards are important anti-fraud measures.
The two banks canceled his cards after receiving calls from someone claiming to be him, Mr Chan said. The caller had apparently submitted identity verification requests after a few failed attempts.
Chan said he is angry at the banks for not trying to contact him when the caller initially failed the verification questions.
When asked what happened, a UOB spokesperson said the bank is prioritizing the “rapid security of the customer’s account” against unauthorized access.
“Callers must provide personal details of the cardholders such as their NRIC number, card and account details. This approach is in line with industry standards,” he said.
An OCBC spokesperson acknowledged Chan’s discomfort and said the bank will continue to improve its processes “to find the right balance between security and convenience for our customers,” and stated its willingness to assist with police investigations.
As for DBS, the bank said it had received a similar request to block Chan’s cards and “acted immediately to prioritize the security of his account and card by following our card blocking protocol.”
For DBS, callers only need to provide the account holder’s full name and telephone number or NRIC number to block the cards.
Chan said he urged the bank to introduce stronger safeguards, such as requiring a one-time password (OTP) before blocking accounts.
DBS confirmed that its customer service team assisted Mr Chan by placing an additional security alert on his profile and ensuring that any further instructions regarding his account and cards are only carried out through calls authenticated with an additional SMS OTP.
Chan said his wife had a problem accessing her DBS savings account online.
“When my wife tried to log into DBS iBanking from Tokyo, there was a message telling her to contact the call center for assistance. To this day, I have not heard from the bank how this could have happened,” said Mr Chan.
“My wife and I have been victims of impersonation and the caller’s intent was to block our access to our finances and disrupt our vacation.”
The ordeal has taught Chan that banks’ thresholds for identity verification can be quite low, which, he points out, creates potential loopholes. Some banks even allow a third party, such as a family member, to make cancellations.
“As long as someone has your full name and phone number, that person can call the bank to block your credit card,” he said.
He added that the banks have so far refused to give him details of the verification questions asked of the impersonator, meaning he has been unable to take immediate steps to protect his data.
As for who is impersonating him, Chan suspects the caller is someone his wife knows from work.
The person had also apparently called the gym the couple attended and attempted to transfer their membership to another location.
“We were able to trace the caller’s number through the gym and discovered it was linked to the person my wife knows from work,” Mr Chan said.
Lawyer Sunil Sudheesan, head of Quahe Woo & Palmer’s criminal department, warned that the low verification thresholds – where banks accept requests with minimal details such as a full name and NRIC number and third-party cancellations – could create an opportunity for those with bad intentions to exploit.
“The threshold as it is now is necessarily low given the spectrum of consumers that exist. However, some level of verification among cardholders would be ideal,” Sudhesan said.
“I support a callback verification mechanism, but in the meantime freeze accounts, rather than immediately canceling them at face value when a third party calls.”
He added that impersonation could constitute a criminal offense under the Criminal Code if someone is found to be cheating by pretending to be another person. The crime carries a prison sentence of up to five years, a fine, or both. – The Straits Times/ANN