Singaporean discovers identity theft after study loan
HE applied for a study loan and was angry when it was rejected. But a nastier surprise was in store when he tried to find out the reason for the rejection.
It seemed he was overdue in his payments for his overdraft account.
The shock: He had no idea he had an overdraft account or, for that matter, two credit card accounts in his name.
It was then that MrBenny Wong discovered that someone had used his particulars to open the three accounts illegally with United Overseas Bank (UOB), in July 2006.
The 28-year-old marketing executive found out about the accounts when he got a Credit Bureau report on 24 Jun, after his loan was rejected.
He called UOB immediately and a customer service officer confirmed he had active accounts with the bank.
Mr Wong has since made a police report.
Last month, he applied for a study loan of $17,000. When it was not approved, he said, he had to suspend his studies in a private school here for a bachelor’s degree in business and marketing after two weeks of classes.
‘I was quite angry and shocked,’ he said. Explaining why he decided to get a credit report done, he said: ‘If I hadn’t done so, I might not have known till I’m 50 or lawyers come knocking on my door,’ he said.
The Credit Bureau Singapore records all credit card payment behaviour, and helps credit providers make faster and more objective lending decisions.
You can get a copy of your credit report online, at a SingPost branch or directly at the bureau’s office, for $5 plus GST.
Mr Wong believed the reason for the rejection of his loan application was the state of the overdraft account, for which the payment was many months overdue, according to the credit report.
Only one of the two credit card accounts saw some use. Strangely, a full payment was made on that.
But this wasn’t his first experience with credit card fraud.
In December 2006, he received a lawyer’s letter sent on behalf of Standard Chartered Bank. It said he owed the bank $1,355.
But he did not have an account with the bank. When he called Standard Chartered’s fraud department, he was told someone had opened an account in his name.
He made a police report.
- He is one unlucky Singaporean but I myself will make my way down to Singpost soon to find out anyone had misused my account for anything illegal like getting a fund transfer or loan. I had once worked for DBS’s out sourced credit card and line of credit company that work in road shows during weekend and poach ATM users at banks. The problem is we get to have access to customer’s credit card details, NRIC photocopy and they fill up all their particulars in the application form on the spot to get freebies.
All these information including their payslip or CPF history may be pass to the outsourced company that can be easily replaced easily. I know their plight as they usually hire temporary contract workers that does not have any kind of benifits that a ordinary permanent bank staff enjoys and their pay sucks.
Imagine any kind of outsource company of banks, charity organization, lucky draws and etc getting photocopy of your credit card or NRIC information!! They can easily misused the information for illegal application of loans or fund transfer (line of credit).
The key point is they can change the billing address to alternative address to avoid detection by the original owner of the identity via the bank with a simple phone call, all they need is some simple personal details for verification such as account numbers, date of birth, home address or even the expiry date of the ATM card.
The usage for a photocopy of NRIC varies from application of bank loan, borrowing library books using the bar code behind the NRIC, application for one or multiple new mobile accounts to sell the sim card to foreign workers to call overseas at a cheap one time payment to borrowing money from illegal loan sharks.
The usage for a photocopy Credit Card is even worst as exisiting credit card can easily becomes the “approval requirement” for a supplementary credit card or bank loan, the last 3 digit of the credit card number on the card can be used to purchase things online without your knowledge until you check your transaction history, they can go for a shopping spree if they happen to copy your credit card digital details using a special slide scanner and use the information to made a illegal clone of your credit card.
Key points to this article is -
- Never ever let anyone handle your credit card & NRIC unless they are located inside the bank.
- Always know the person’s name who handle your details.
- Never discloses your own details on the phone even if they claim you won a lottery and need your addresses/date of birth/full name/father’s name/credit card number
- Never ever photocopy your NRIC with the bar code behind intact…use a marker to strike the bar code off the photocopy just in case they use it to borrow library books.
- Check your account balances regularly.
- Choose a PIN or password that cannot be easily guessed.
- Never throw your bills into the public dust bins as these people can easily pick it up and locate your address, full name and a simple check on the telephone book to find your home contact number, they can call you and pretend to be bank staff and extract more details from you using a fake verification reasons. (If possible file your bills at home or shred them totally)
- Never ever believe in emails from banks that ask for your username & passwords.
- If things are too good to be true, it usually is. Refuse to enter those lucky draw application that requires NRIC numbers, full name and mobile numbers.
- Don’t believe in lucky draw winning that you had never participated in.
- Always be aware of new scams by reading the news.
That’s all I can think of right now but I do apologize if what I had mentioned here affect any legit commercial contest or businesses. Frankly, there will be more scams in time of economic downturn so always be prepared and alert. Don’t get conned!
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Eileen