When 36-year-old homemaker, Denise (not her real name) and her husband realised that they may have been victims of a phishing scam, he immediately called the OCBC hotline to try to get the bank to stop the scammers in their tracks.
However, instead of getting a response, Denise’s husband was put on hold for over 20 minutes.
During which, he received more SMS notifications that his OneToken had been activated.
The OneToken is OCBC’s digital authentication tool for internet transactions.
He was also notified that his transaction limit was increased from S$5,000 to S$50,000.
Unable to get through, Denise’s husband carried on with his other tasks.
Two hours later, he received another SMS suddenly informing him that S$15,718 had been transferred out via PayNow.
Horrified, he called OCBC’s hotline again, but was put on hold. While waiting, he received an SMS that another S$2,400 had been transferred out.