Identity theft lands Kajang woman with bad credit rating

KUALA LUMPUR: A salesperson was unaware that her identification card was misused by someone else in the purchase of an expensive smartphone until her application for a bank loan was declined, allegedly due to her poor credit rating.

Lim Xin Yin, 30, from Kajang, Selangor, claimed she had never lost her IC or borrowed money from a credit leasing company.

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In May 2022, when she applied for a housing loan with a bank, she was told that she was rated poorly by a credit reporting agency.

She then learnt that someone had used her IC to apply to a leasing company for a RM6,799 loan to buy an iPhone 12 Pro Max in August 2021.

Speaking at a press conference arranged by MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong, Lim said she then contacted the leasing company and managed to get information about the "borrower" after filing a police report.

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"Except for my IC, other information supplied to the credit leasing firm – phone number, address and invoice – was not mine.

"I wondered how they had given out the loan with all the incorrect personal information," she said.

Lim added that the leasing firm had told her that hers was not the first case it had come across.

Chong urged the Local Government Development Ministry to look into the loopholes in the application of online loans.

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"We also urge the public to verify their records with CTOS and CCRIS (central reference information system) yearly to avoid credit misuse," he said.

At the press conference, lawyer Goh Kean Pang said the victim had filed a police report about her case and appealed to the credit rating agency to rectify her credit record.