Internet banking fraud foiled
5th December 2003 (New Strait Times)

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5: Police arrested four men and foiled an attempt by a syndicate, with international links, to defraud bank account holders who used Internet banking facilities.

Following the arrests over the past 72 hours, more than RM15,000 was seized from the suspects. Police also thwarted an attempt to withdraw more than RM150,000.

Acting city Chief Police Officer Senior Assistant Commissioner (I) Datuk Ahmad Bahrin Idrus declined comment as investigations have not been completed. Police have not ruled out more arrests. It is learnt that after a local bank was alerted of an attempt to commit fraud through Internet banking, police moved in. Two weeks ago, police were informed of a RM100,000 transaction carried out over the Internet with the amount being transferred from the account of a businessman into another account.

The businessman denied using the Internet banking facility, prompting police to mount a surveillance. A withdrawal of RM15,000 was made from the second account several days after the Internet transfer.

A second withdrawal of RM20,000 was blocked and police moved in and arrested the individual who attempted to withdraw the money.

Follow-up operations led police to Petaling Jaya and Seremban where more arrests were made.

"Police are looking into the possibility that those behind the Internet fraud attempt could be from abroad," an Internet security consultant said.

In recent months, account holders, especially those who activated online services, were advised to ignore a fraudulent e-mail circulated over the Internet.

A statement issued by a bank said some people had received e-mail claiming to have been sent from the Internet security division of the bank.

The e-mail message advised account holders of a new security system, and customers were advised to change their password by directly logging into a "new website". Internet banking was first introduced about three years ago and to date more than 400,000 customers have registered for the service.