SINGAPORE – OCBC Financial institution mentioned on Monday (Jan 17) that it has already been making goodwill funds to prospects who misplaced funds from their financial institution accounts in a current spate of SMS phishing scams.
The financial institution mentioned it has been doing so since Jan 8 and greater than 30 prospects have obtained them thus far.
“The payouts to this group of shoppers are made on goodwill foundation after thorough verification, bearing in mind the circumstances of every case,” OCBC mentioned.
Almost 470 prospects misplaced at the very least $8.5 million to fraudulent fund transfers in December final yr after scammers posed as OCBC and despatched SMSes to victims with hyperlinks to phishing websites.
OCBC didn’t reveal how a lot it has paid out or if it intends to completely compensate each sufferer. ST has contacted the financial institution for extra particulars.
Many victims reportedly fell for the ruse as a result of the faux SMSes had been grouped by their telephones with professional SMSes beforehand despatched by the financial institution for one-time passwords and transaction alerts.
This occurred because the scammers had spoofed the OCBC title used for sending out official SMSes.
