DBS & UOB Now Also Disallow Sideloaded Apps on Your Phone

Are you a fan of doing “fancy” things with your phone?

For example, downloading sideloaded apps or trying to “jailbreak” your phone to test the boundaries of what can and cannot be done officially.

If you are, then you may be restricted from using official banking apps from DBS, UOB, OCBC and Citibank.

Even though it may pose an inconvenience to how you may be used to using your apps, it will be for your own good to protect you from scams and decrease the likelihood of losing your money to an ill-intentioned scammer.

Here is what DBS and UOB are doing to step up their game and protect users from being scam victims.

DBS and UOB Have New Anti-scam Measures for Their Apps

Starting this October, DBS will roll out anti-scam measures for its digital services.

Mobile phones which have sideloaded apps downloaded and permissions enabled will be restricted from accessing the DBS’ official app.

There will also be restricted access on the DBS app if ongoing screen-sharing or mirroring is detected on devices.

For those unfamiliar with the term “sideloaded apps”, these apps are downloaded from unverified app stores.

The usual verified app stores we are familiar with are the Apple app store for iPhone users and Google Play store for Android users.

For UOB, the rollout will be slightly earlier, beginning this Wednesday. The anti-scam measures will be rolled out progressively for its users.

UOB bank app access will be restricted where it detects that there are “risky permissions” enabled or that there are sideloaded apps.

To continue using the UOB app, users have to “uninstall or switch off accessibility permissions for the mentioned app to continue using UOB’s digital services” as reported by Channel News Asia.

OCBC and Citibank Were the Pioneers in This Field

Those who cheer on DBS and UOB’s measures will know that they are following in the footsteps of OCBC and Citibank.

Sometime last month, OCBC started to roll out its anti-scam measures on Android phones.

Phones which contained sideloaded apps and were under the threat of malware were unable to log into the official OCBC apps.

Citibank soon followed suit, where there would be restricted access to official Citibank banking apps if risky apps were downloaded.

All these measures come at a timely time given the abundance of malware scam situations involving victims having their accounts drained by scammers.

Hopefully the situation improves soon and people don’t lose their hard-earned money to the ruthless scammers.

If you want to know more about some malware scams that have been happening, watch this video.