A Malaysian has taken to social media to warn others of the existence of a fake Maybank2u website that looks almost exactly like the real online banking website
Facebook user Azizul Osman learned the hard way and shared his experience to stop others from falling for the same scam that cost him a significant amount of money.
Image via CNN
Azizul said he discovered the website last weekend when he suddenly decided to check his bank account balance
As anyone would, he pulled out his laptop, typed “Maybank” into Google, and clicked the first search result without thinking twice.
Unfortunately, that was his mistake – the website he clicked into was a phishing website.
However, at first look, the landing page looked exactly the same as the original website’s, complete with the same background picture, fonts, wording, and login bar.
Unsuspectingly, he typed in his username and password but instead of logging in, he was sent a Transaction Authorisation Code (TAC) number through SMS to his phone.
Still not thinking twice about it, he keyed in the TAC onto the website. When nothing occurred, he finally realised that something was wrong.
“When I realised my mistake, I was shocked like I got hit. Seriously, I didn’t know what to do at that time,” he related on Facebook.
Immediately contacting Maybank, he was told that his account had just authorised a RM3,600 transfer to an online shopping site that he did not agree to.
Image via Azizul Osman (Facebook)
With the help of the bank officer on the phone, Azizul quickly blocked all authorisations for transactions through his Maybank2u account and his credit cards
Unfortunately, the damage had been done. Maybank told him that his money could not be recovered because it was transferred to a third party website.
“Guys, please be aware of this and make sure the website is real before you try to log in,” he advised.
Azizul told SAYS that he hopes by sharing his experience, more people would notice fake websites like these and stop falling victims to phishing scams.
He added that he has reported the incident to the police, who will be conducting investigations.