PETALING JAYA: Consumers and business owners have been urged to use the electronic payment (e-payment) method to avoid falling victim to cheque fraud.
The Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) said e-payment is a convenient method of transferring funds from one bank to another and making payment.
ABM executive director Chuah Mei Lin said the reduction in the fee for fund transfers using Inter-Bank GIRO (IBG) via Internet and mobile banking to a maximum of 10 sen per transaction had made it very affordable.
“It will be cheaper to use e-payment as a cheque processing fee of 50 sen is imposed on issuers of cheques with effect from April 1 this year for each cheque issued.
“This fee is in addition to the existing stamp duty of 15 sen per cheque leaf,” said Chuah in an e-mail.
Chuah advised consumers and business owners against posting their cheques, and recommended that they insert the cheques into deposit machines.
ABM said it was working closely with the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) and Bank Negara to address issues involving cheque fraud.
Chuah said ABM, together with Bank Negara and the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia, had started promoting the IBG Fund Transfer since October last year to educate the public on the use of IBG via Internet or mobile banking.
Fomca secretary-general Datuk Paul Selvaraja said such fraud had been going on for a while, adding: “It’s quite difficult to completely prevent it as people are very creative. More needs to be done. Banks need to educate the public on their new systems.”
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