STOMPer Sarah said she received a call from a man yesterday (Jan 3), claiming to be from Maybank Credit Card Collection Centre.
"He said his name is Steven Lim Mun Kik and that I owe Maybank $3,000 plus in credit card bills," she said in an email last night.
"I told him that I do not own any credit cards and he suggested that I may have lost my IC and someone made use of it to apply for the Maybank credit card. He alleged that I applied for the card on the 15th September 2007," she said.
The STOMPer said the man wanted to verify her IC number and address.
"I again stressed that I do not own any credit cards. He said that if I don’t believe him, I can call 65352266 to ask for him and that he’s located at Maybank Towers.
"He threatened that he is going to retrieve the cctv recording from Sim Lim Towers where I spent $4,800 after reporting me to the 'fraud department'.
"He also said that I have to be responsible for the payment even though I did not apply for the card," she said.
The STOMPer called the number he gave her and said she was told there was no such employee in the bank.
"The customer officer who attended to my call informed me that there have been many such calls made to the public and their bank’s customers," she said.
The STOMPer checked Maybank’s website and saw this security warning:
Security Alert – Debt Collection Scam
"It has been brought to our attention that there is a party or parties involved in making telephone calls to members of the public, purporting to be representing Maybank, collecting debts on behalf of the Bank. The caller (s) will claim that the customer has outstanding amounts owing to the Bank due to their spending on their credit cards, and request that they pay up the money by cheque. Most of these calls are made via an Overseas Number and on some occasions, the party has identified himself as a “Steven Lim Mun Kin” or “Vincent Tan”.
"We wish to inform members of the public that these calls are not made by representatives of Maybank and these people are not Maybank staff. You may make a report to the Police if you should receive similar calls."
The STOMPer gives this brief description of the man on the phone: "He sounded local Chinese in his late forties and was very agitated, even angry and nervous at one point during the conversation.
"During the whole conversation which lasted about 10 minutes, there were phones ringing constantly in the background.
"He ended the conversation on the note that he will be sending me a warning letter as he claimed I have ignored two letters sent out by the bank last year."
STOMP is contacting Maybank for comments.
TOTW/F/M Award(s): 1
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