Thief swaps woman's atm card and steals her cash
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KUALA LUMPUR: Until she received a call from the bank, Mabel (not her real name) did not realise that over RM27,000 had been wiped off her account – in 94 withdrawals over four straight days – by a thief who had swapped her ATM card with another.
The unfortunate event happened at the bank’s branch here.
While a foreign-looking man tapped her on her shoulder and pointed out that she had apparently dropped some money, another man beside her stealthily swapped her ATM card with a similar one.
Unaware, the writer and mother-of-two took the RM1,300 she had withdrawn and the card and left the bank.
When she failed to recover her losses from the bank, Mabel lodged a complaint with the Financial Mediation Bureau (FMB).
Following an investigation, FMB mediator Ganesan Somasundram held that the bank should reimburse RM22,160 or 80% of the disputed sum of RM27,700.
“We are of the view that fraudulent practices had occurred in the premises of the bank due to the lack of preventive measures to ensure a safe and conducive environment for their cardholders as envisaged by Bank Negara Malaysia’s guidelines,” he had said in his written decision.
However, Ganesan, among others, held that the complainant had contributed negligence to a certain extent.
