Swift moves to protect against bank/phone fraud in wake of Bangkok man's 900K loss

[webfact]

Swift moves to protect against bank/phone fraud in wake of Bangkok man's 900K loss

 

Image: tnamcot

 

BANGKOK: -- Changes have come thick and fast in the wake of the case of a Bangkok man who suffered a 900,000 baht loss from his bank account after a thief managed to get a replacement sim card from True Corporation.

 

The sim - fraudulently obtained after the thief pretended he had lost it - was used to get a one time password and empty the account of Phansuthee Meeleukit, a car detailer who thought he was selling merchandise to the thief, reported tnamcot.

 

Kasikorn bank had already announced they would reimburse Phansuthee but True refused to do so. 

 

Now True are under investigation by communications authorities for their role in the matter and have already admitted that their procedures were not properly followed by a staff member.

 

They have offered the victim of the crime a phone and free calls for a year.

 

A new sim was issued to the thief despite neither a Thai ID card nor a proxy authority being presented according to their own regulations.

 

The government want to know what True actually did and will do in the future to ensure there is no repeat of the case.

 

Meanwhile, Kasikorn have said that in future no password changes can be made through their call centre - customers must go into the bank branch and present proper ID.

 

And in other developments central to the case police named the thief as Siam Theuangphon, a Ratchaburi native, and said that they will soon interview him in connection with the matter.

 

Source: tnamcot

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2016-08-23

[dcnx]

They gave 900,000b of his money to a thief, and the best they can do is offer him a free phone and usage for a year?

 

Did I read that right?

[Somtamnication]

" They have offered the victim of the crime a phone and free calls for a yea ".   TRUE should have paid the million, not Kasikorn. Or at least 50 50.

[trogers]

The free phone and a year's usage are so that the victim can lose another Bt900...

[Thian]

The government want to know what True actually did and will do in the future to ensure there is no repeat of the case.

 

Now come on you guys, don't tell me you want to learn from your mistakes, that's not Thai at all. You have to say "mai ben lai" and just continue like nothing happened. 

[meatboy]

police are waiting to interview the THEIF, shouldnt he be arrested?

[ezzra]

 

I happened to be privy to what is on the bank's screen when you come to withdraw

or deposit and do general banking, well, there's only the name and the account number,

and nothing else, no photo, no ID card/passport number, nothing, so you can see how

mistakes can be made, it it did happened to ne when the bank has given my money

to a person with a fake Thai ID......

[allane]

My Thai bank has twice refused to accept written notice that I have moved, with my signature at the bottom. The last time, I went to my home branch with my passport, bank book, ATM card, credit card, and latest statement. All they did was connect me to their call centre. After asking for only my name and a number on my ATM card, they did it. 

[jacko45k]

36 minutes ago, dcnx said:

They gave 900,000b of his money to a thief, and the best they can do is offer him a free phone and usage for a year?

 

Did I read that right?

No, True did not give any of his money to the thief, the bank did that. True reissued his SIM card to the thief without requiring to see his National ID card and he was able to use that. It was really a case of 3 parties being rather negligent, including the victim himself. You seem to presume the seller of a weapon is guilty of any crimes it is used in.

[dotpoom]

Just now, Somtamnication said:

" They have offered the victim of the crime a phone and free calls for a yea ".   TRUE should have paid the million, not Kasikorn. Or at least 50 50.

 

K Bank has given him back 50% ...(after a bit of pressure).

Edited August 23, 2016 by dotpoom

[smedly]

31 minutes ago, Somtamnication said:

" They have offered the victim of the crime a phone and free calls for a yea ".   TRUE should have paid the million, not Kasikorn. Or at least 50 50.

I agree, also when they find the guy they may be able to recover at least some of the loss provided he hasn't already gone across a border

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The original news reports on this glaringly failed to mention either the specific bank or mobile company involved -- even though the victim was publicly protesting in front of Police HQ in BKK.

 

Now, somehow, the media has decided it's OK to mention that it was in fact Kasikorn and True involved. Typical of the Thai media defamation culture, and not wanting to offend the same companies who are their big advertisers.

 

[AlphMichaels]

No clue why the author would twist this story to infer blame on SWIFT.  Poorly written and researched.  SWIFT has NOTHING to do with funds transfers or withdrawals..., they merely facilitate them and then only if it is an inter-bank transfer with a member bank. If it was an inter-bank transfer, why no mention of the bank that received the funds or its location??  

 

This is the exclusive responsibility of the bank and all here are 20 years behind the western world.  They refuse to invest in easy-to-use, highly secure online solutions.  SCB easy is a great example.  The site is horrendous.   

 

A great example of the pervasive incompetence and ineptitude in financials institution's quality of services.    

 

[simon43]

No clue why the author would twist this story to infer blame on SWIFT. 

 

Read the news report again.  It says 'Swift' (ie quick or rapid), not 'SWIFT'

 

 

[ChrisY1]

Obviously simple to steal money from a bank, especially when a grubby phone company is complicit!

45 minutes ago, Thian said:

The government want to know what True actually did and will do in the future to ensure there is no repeat of the case.

 

Now come on you guys, don't tell me you want to learn from your mistakes, that's not Thai at all. You have to say "mai ben lai" and just continue like nothing happened. 

 

And...no doubt, that's exactly what they will do!

[captspectre]

1 hour ago, dcnx said:

They gave 900,000b of his money to a thief, and the best they can do is offer him a free phone and usage for a year?

 

Did I read that right?

I would never trust true for anything and if there was another company in thailand that offered satellite service i would switch in a second! true is UBC with a haircut!

[English 1]

Smells like an inside job by True employee!

 

[pkspeaker]

1 hour ago, jacko45k said:

No, True did not give any of his money to the thief, the bank did that. True reissued his SIM card to the thief without requiring to see his National ID card and he was able to use that. It was really a case of 3 parties being rather negligent, including the victim himself. You seem to presume the seller of a weapon is guilty of any crimes it is used in.

still dont understand what happened.. he got a new simcard as if the old phine card had been lost.. didn't the victims phone immediatly go offline, or rather cant they tell that the simcard is still responding to the network as the victims phone would still be on.. and what is this 'password'. when i wire money from a desk like that picture shows i need the passbook and my passport id... ?

[recycler]

Following procedures or the shortcut...

[varun]

Somebody please explain to me how the transfer of funds actually happened.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong:

 

The final frontier in the chain was the KBanking App.

 

1) The perp setup the app on his phone with the victim's credentials and initiated a transfer from the victim's account into his own.

2) The prerequisite to perform the above was that the app had to be 'bound' to the SIM card/number of the victim.
3) This is where the perp was able to get a new SIM card in the victim's name.

4) Since he presumably knew the victim's account number & account name, he requested a OTP from the bank

     to setup the app with the new SIM card.

 

Am I missing something here?

[Si Thea01]

45 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

No, True did not give any of his money to the thief, the bank did that. True reissued his SIM card to the thief without requiring to see his National ID card and he was able to use that. It was really a case of 3 parties being rather negligent, including the victim himself. You seem to presume the seller of a weapon is guilty of any crimes it is used in.

 

Agree with you about the negligence aspect with two but I think you may be a little hard on the customer seeing we do not know the full extent of the circumstances surrounding the incident..

 

True issued the sim without proper procedures being followed.   There is also the possibility of employee involvement but like most reports, no one gives out concise information, however, despite this, it is an avenue of investigation that should be followed, if it has not been already.  This would alleviate any suspicions that might be aroused.  If everything is as stated then it is a  clear case of Negligence without any form of criminality being attached.

 

With the Bank, it allowed the password to be changed via telephoning their call centre and then then the entire account to be emptied without, it appears any checks undertaken to ensure the transaction was legitimate.  They have however, agreed to reimburse the customer, which one would believe they are duty bound to do. Hopefully, they have undertaken an investigation to ensure there was no involvement of their employee or customer.  Forgive my cynicism. Again, if everything is above board, then a plain case of negligence without any criminality attached. 

 

Thirdly, the customer.  Most Thais that I know and who are business people and others who are not, have the SMS alert, as I do.  Not knowing if the victim had this protection, it is hard to be critical of him but even if he did, he would not be able to prevent the total withdrawal if made in one transaction and approved by the Bank.  If he did not have this alert and there were a number of transactions, then I would say, at the very least, he was foolish but not negligent.  Again though, regardless of the circumstances he should be included in the inquiry in order to dispel any suspicions as to his possible involvement.  Sorry for being cynical.

 

 

[ThailandLOS]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

named the thief as Siam Theuangphon, a Ratchaburi native, and said that they will soon interview him in connection with the matter

 

That's if they can find him. So quite optimistic.

 

Wouldn't imagine he will be sticking around with his 900k waiting for a knock from 5-0

Edited August 23, 2016 by ThailandLOS

[oldlakey]

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

 

I happened to be privy to what is on the bank's screen when you come to withdraw

or deposit and do general banking, well, there's only the name and the account number,

and nothing else, no photo, no ID card/passport number, nothing, so you can see how

mistakes can be made, it it did happened to ne when the bank has given my money

to a person with a fake Thai ID......

Was the phone any good

[ThailandLOS]

18 minutes ago, English 1 said:

Smells like an inside job by True employee!

 

 

Wouldn't think so, just sloppy customer service staff in True.

 

Happens all the time there and elsewhere.

[Dustdevil]

Very badly written headline is confusing. Every long head should have a verb, usually simple present tense. This one says "Swift moves..." so reading it we conclude instinctively that the subject is "Swift" and the verb is "moves." Instead the copy editor chose to use the noun phrase "Swift moves" and a string of words without a verb. This simply isn't done in professional news writing. It's high-schoolish, annoying, confusing and readers should not be faulted for making the wrong assumption based on bad writing.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Dustdevil

[pkspeaker]

4 minutes ago, ThailandLOS said:

 

That's if they can find him. So quite optimistic.

 

Wouldn't imagine he will be sticking around with his 900k waiting for a knock from 5-0

oh they'll find him..question is what'd he do with the money, he was probably stupid enough to do this job with accomplaces, who he already paid out to, leaving himself to do the time.. 

[williamgeorgeallen]

2 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

" They have offered the victim of the crime a phone and free calls for a yea ".   TRUE should have paid the million, not Kasikorn. Or at least 50 50.

there should be no 50 50. true was at fault giving out a sim card to the wrong person.  bank security systems are very good and work if the telephone companies do their job properly.

[williamgeorgeallen]

1 hour ago, jacko45k said:

No, True did not give any of his money to the thief, the bank did that. True reissued his SIM card to the thief without requiring to see his National ID card and he was able to use that. It was really a case of 3 parties being rather negligent, including the victim himself. You seem to presume the seller of a weapon is guilty of any crimes it is used in.

the seller of a firearm has to follow laws in the country they are operating in. record identification or sight the firearms licence etc. true did not follow the procedure, they are at fault. the bank was just following their efficient safety measures. how can anyone blame the bank? cant blame the poor shmuch who lost his money. he should have been covered by the safety measures from the institutions he pays to use. blame the thief, ok but again it should never have happened due to true employees not following procedure.

[shaggy851]

Im always a bit worried with the security of these online banking apps and websites. They seem to be more aimed at ease of use rather than security, it was only time before this happened. It could be as simple as stealing someones phone or getting their sim or a replacement sim activated. They also need the password or authorise a new password which could be stolen easily by cameras or password sniffing software. Not to mention the staff that have acess and understand all the procedures to access and modify accounts. If one person from a telephone company knew a person at the bank and had a third party do the dirty work...

[swerver]

1 hour ago, simon43 said:

 

 

 

Read the news report again.  It says 'Swift' (ie quick or rapid), not 'SWIFT'

 

 

 

You are correct, the heading says Swift.

But for s starter people are careless in their reading habits it gives the impression that SWIFT the bank to bank money transfer is involved.

When I read the heading I immediately stopped and did reread and came to the conclusion that the meaning was the speed at which the robbery had been committed. Typical media, not only in Thailand, but worldwide.