News

DBS hit again by skimming fraud

February 24, 2012

DBS Bank said Friday that a third ATM was compromised at around the same time as a major DBS skimming event that occurred on Jan. 4 and 5, according to a news story at asiaone.com. The announcement came following a new spate of unauthorized ATM withdrawals on Feb. 19.

DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia, with more than 200 branches across 15 markets.

In the latest fraud, DBS was alerted to unauthorized ATM withdrawals by 17 customers who received real-time SMS alerts that money had been withdrawn from their accounts. Thieves stole a total of $23,000 before they were discovered. The previous operation had resulted in the theft of about $1 million from 700 customers.

DBS impletanalytics to establish use patterns for the customers affected by the most recent event. This allowed the bank to conclude that a third ATM had been compromised in January, in addition to the two previously identified ATMs.

In the January theft, customers reported sums of money being withdrawn in Kuala Lumpur though they were not in Malaysia at the time. Following the incident, DBS blocked overseas ATM withdrawals unless requested by customers that they not be blocked.

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