By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Feb 5: A woman identified as Madam Ang reportedly lost RM116,700 from her AmBank Islamic Berhad account after unauthorised transactions were carried out without her knowledge, raising serious concerns over banking security and consumer protection.
According to a statement by Michael Kong Feng Nian, special assistant to Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen, Madam Ang was first alerted to the issue when a friend informed her that messages had been sent from her WhatsApp account requesting to borrow money.
Alarmed, she immediately checked her bank statement and discovered that RM116,700 had been withdrawn from her AmBank Islamic savings account.
What made the incident more troubling was that Madam Ang’s savings account originally contained just over RM20,000.
However, RM100,000 was allegedly uplifted from her fixed deposit and transferred into her savings account before the entire amount was siphoned out over the course of two days.
“All these transactions were not authorised by Madam Ang,” Kong said, adding that she did not receive any real-time alerts or notifications while the transfers and withdrawals were taking place.
The only notification received was an email sent on Oct 6, 2025 at 11.53am. Kong said Madam Ang immediately contacted the bank to dispute the transactions, but by the time she reached customer service, all the funds had already been wiped out.
Following the incident, Madam Ang lodged a police report and submitted a formal dispute claim to AmBank Islamic Berhad. However, despite what Kong described as clear red flags involving unauthorised access, lack of alerts and large fund movements, her dispute was rejected by the bank.
Kong said he has since assisted Madam Ang in lodging a dispute with the Financial Markets Ombudsman Service.
“How was a fixed deposit allowed to be uplifted and transferred without the account holder’s knowledge? Why were there no immediate alerts for such large and unusual transactions? And when consumers act swiftly upon discovering fraud, why are they still left unprotected?” he questioned.
He warned that ordinary Malaysians, including senior citizens and retirees, are losing their life savings in a matter of hours due to security lapses beyond their control.
“It is simply unacceptable for the burden to be pushed entirely onto consumers while financial institutions disclaim responsibility,” he said.
Kong also called on Bank Negara Malaysia to urgently review and strengthen mandatory cybersecurity standards across all banks.
“This must include stricter controls over fixed deposit withdrawals, real-time transaction alerts, stronger authentication mechanisms, and clearer accountability when breaches occur,” he added. – DayakDaily
