SOME 95% of online fraud banking transactions involving mule accounts were “voluntarily” authorised by the victims themselves, says Deputy Finance Minister Lim Hui Ying.
She said this form of “authorised fraud” has made it difficult for the banks to detect or halt such transactions involving mule accounts.
“Cheating cases involving authorised fraud remains very high and make up 95% of all cheating cases. This is due to the nature of the scam which involves authorised transactions which looked genuine,” she told Datuk Awang Hashim (PN-Pendang).
She said scammers also exploit students to create mule accounts.
“The nature and use of these accounts are similar to valid accounts. They are opened by the clients after fulfilling the stipulated conditions or customer due diligence check list (CDC),” she added.
Nevertheless, Lim said the setting up of the National Fraud Portal ( P) last year has helped in tracking and freezing transactions linked to scams.
“Between April and September last year, the P has successfully frozen transactions by up to an average of 34% a month compared to previously,” she said.
Earlier, Lim told the House that dubious transactions totalling RM399mil were frozen by banks last year.
“The number of cases involving phishing and malware reported to Bank Negara was reduced by 60% for the first nine months of last year,” she told Chong Chieng Jen (PH-Stampin).
She added that this was due to enhanced security and fast response in dealing with online fraud.
Meanwhile, Lim said the government had introduced a policy to make banks accountable to victims of fraud.
She said banks will have to compensate clients who were cheated if they had failed to comply with stipulated banking regulations.
She added that victims who were not satisfied with the compensation amount could bring the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman.
