1,166 Customers’ Details Were Leaked by UOB Staff in an Impersonation Scam

Much like the coronavirus, scammers are evolving every day.

Just when you think you’ve figured them out, they come up with new, more sophisticated methods to get what they want from unsuspecting victims.

For example, in the past, when a scammer wanted someone’s personal banking information, they’d attempt to swindle the victim.

But since residents are getting more and more informed about these scams, swindlers have found another way to retrieve this information: scamming the bank itself. 

1,166 Customers’ Details Were Leaked by UOB Staff in an Impersonation Scam

A UOB employee recently disclosed the personal details of over 1,000 of the bank’s customers to several people that the staff believed were police officers.

The employee later discovered that they were actually scammers who had deceived them into giving up the personal banking information of UOB’s customers.

This information included customer names, identification and mobile numbers, and account balances.

Their bank account numbers were not disclosed and the bank’s IT systems remain secure, however, UOB said in a statement yesterday (7 May).

While the bank didn’t release specifics of the scam as investigations are still ongoing, they said the employee, who had been working in Singapore, had been contacted by scammers impersonating police officers from China.

The swindlers duped the staff member into handing over the information of 1,166 Chinese nationals with Singapore-based accounts.

The employee in question has been suspended and is assisting with police investigations.

“We apologise to our customers that this has happened as we have always made it a priority to keep their data secure,” the bank said.

“UOB is working closely with the Singapore Police Force on their investigations.”

Protective Measures

The bank said it has contacted all of its affected customers and taken several precautionary measures to protect them, including:

• Immediately disabling their internet and mobile banking access
• Advising them on resetting their digital banking access and how to protect themselves from scams
• Stepping up account monitoring of affected accounts
• Setting an SMS alert threshold of S$1 for any online funds transfers
• Posting scam protection notices on the login pages of UOB Personal Internet Banking and UOB Mighty
• Posting a public education notice on UOB social media channels

“We expect the highest standards of professional conduct from our people at all times as part of maintaining the trust our customers place in us,” the bank said.

“We are very sorry that our customers have been placed in this position. We will continue to make every effort to work with them on keeping their accounts safe.”

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