Keeping customers safe: Yusrina (left) and Eldie.
PETALING JAYA: Reports about Malaysians losing their life savings due to scammers have fast become a daily affair.
However, there are cases where scam attempts are successfully thwarted – thanks to bank heroes.
Late last year, bank executive Yusrina suspected something amiss when a pensioner, in her 70s, wanted to make a premature upliftment of her fixed deposit account.
The sum amounted to close to RM400,000.
Alarm bells rang louder when the customer said she wanted to transfer the sum to her account and then to multiple banks.
“I asked her why she wanted to do this and she said she would check.
“I noticed she kept texting someone on her phone and was unusually nervous,” said Yusrina, who is attached with the Maybank SS2 Premier Wealth Centre.
Yusrina and her team attempted to contact the customer’s daughter who is the joint account holder.
While attempts to reach the daughter were unsuccessful, the team managed to contact another daughter who said she would arrive soon.
Upon arrival, she had a conversation with her mother and then informed Yusrina and her team to not proceed with the transaction.
“The customer finally realised the scam attempt and thanked us for stopping this in time. I’m thankful she did not become a scam victim. Just imagine pensioners losing their savings.
“It is also our duty to identify potential threats,” she added.
Yusrina also had assistance from her colleagues Azmi, who is the teller, and assistant centre manager Che Mazuriana of the case.
United Overseas Bank (M) Bhd (UOB Malaysia) Jalan Ampang branch sales and service manager Eldie also went above and beyond to halt a scam attempt several years ago.
Relaying the experience, Eldie said he was suspicious after a customer came into the outlet he previously worked at, and asked whether US$4mil had already been credited into his account as a “beneficiary”.
The customer was informed of the amount following a dubious phone call from a “lawyer” and later emails from a “bank chief executive officer”.
“He already made several transactions ranging from RM10,000 to RM15,000 per transaction to the ‘lawyer’ acting as intermediary.
“My gut feeling told me something was not right and we immediately stopped his debit card and Internet banking access.
“The rationale was that the customer has no choice except to visit a branch if there is intention to make more transactions,” he said.
It didn’t stop there – the customer eventually called customer service and even tried asking for a personal loan to facilitate processing fees to the so-called lawyer.
The case reverted to Eldie and he then reached out to the customer, having several meetings for almost three weeks.
The customer eventually revealed details of the law firm with Eldie deciding to probe further.
“I found out it was an actual firm based in Ipoh, Perak.
“Upon contacting its official phone number, I was informed that the customer was not the law firm’s client. It even came to the point where I had to put the call on loudspeaker to get the customer to realise he was being cheated,” he said.
For their efforts, Maybank’s Yusrina, Azmi and Che Mazuriana as well as UOB’s Eldie were recently recognised at the #JanganKenaScam Bank Heroes Recognition Event 2025 to prevent their customers from falling victim to scams.
Only the first names of employees were provided as per bank policy
