Two Malaysians behind ATM fraud to plead guilty
UPDATED (10:15pm Thursday, 19 January)
The two Malaysian men charged for possessing card skimming equipment to produce fake ATM cards plan to plead guilty to their charges, reported The Straits Times.
According to the paper, Loke Siew Fei, 21, and H’Ng Gaik Chin, 39, are also found to be part of an international skimming syndicate based in Malaysia, which is suspected to be behind the unauthorised transactions from DBS ATM machines two weeks ago.
The pair, both on social visit passes, were arrested after an island-wide operation on Thursday at Kim Tian hotel in Geylang Lorong 22 by officers from the Commercial Affairs Department and were found to be in possession of ATM skimming equipment, reported Channel NewsAsia (CNA).
These include a customised panel with a pin-hole camera, a green plastic in shape of an ATM card slot and a laptop, CNA said.
They are currently held in the Central Police Division to assist in investigations to identify other syndicate members. If convicted, they can be fined and jailed up to 10 years.
Last week, it was revealed that unauthorised withdrawals were made from nearly 700 customers’ bank accounts via ATM machines in Malaysia on 4 and 5 January. In a press briefing last Friday, bank officials said its investigations showed that anti-skimming devices had been breached in two ATMs along Bugis Street in late November.
In its latest statement on Friday, the bank said it has compensated around S$1 million to close to 700 affected customers within 24 hours.
This incident prompted DBS Group Holdings chief executive officer Piyush Gupta to issue a public apology on Wednesday to DBS and POSB customers affected by the ATM fraud.
He noted that the bank will introduce a slew of measures to enhance security efforts and one of it – which involves sending out SMS alerts to customers who have made overseas withdrawals above a certain threshold – have been implemented.
DBS said it has also intensified checks on all its ATM machines and will start sending SMS alerts for selective local ATM transactions next week.
