B Mirror Report: A gang has withdrawn money from the credit cards of multinational Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) customers in Bangladesh in a novel way. Although the customers did not make transactions on the card, 50,000 taka was transferred from their bank accounts to multiple MFS or mobile financial service institutions. The fraudsters later withdrew the money from there.

According to sources related to the banking sector, a fraudster gang withdrew money from the cards of 54 SCB customers in the last week of August. The gang withdrew 2.7 million taka from the accounts of these customers. After this incident, the bank has stopped the facility of transferring money from the card to the MFS accounts of bKash and Nagad. In a text message, the bank informed customers that the ‘Add Money’ option is currently temporarily disabled in MFS apps for safe transactions. After customers complained about money being deducted from bank accounts, SCB authorities reported the matter to Bangladesh Bank and law enforcement agencies. Bangladesh Bank has already started an investigation into the matter. When contacted, bKash and Nagad authorities refused to comment.

It is known that this incident of SCB came into the limelight earlier this month. Several customers of the bank reported on social media that Tk 50,000 was deducted from their bank accounts within seconds of receiving a one-time password (OTP) on their phones. However, none of the users shared the OTP or used any suspicious websites and apps.

Victim Hasin Haider wrote on her Facebook status, “Suddenly, 50,000 taka was deducted from my Standard Chartered Visa card to my bKash account. Even though I received an OTP on my phone, I did not share it with anyone. Even then, the money was transferred within 20 seconds. However, the bank says that since the transaction was completed using the OTP, it is the customer’s responsibility.” Hasin Haider also wrote, “At 7:43 pm on August 26, 50,000 taka was deducted from my card. I did not share the OTP with anyone. I believe it is a security issue of the bank.”

Another person named Sadia Sharmin Bristhi wrote on Facebook, “Although I have been using the card for more than seven years, this is the first time I have been a victim of such fraud. 50,000 taka was also transferred from her card.”

When asked about the matter, SCB officials said that after receiving such complaints from multiple customers, the bank’s local and global technology teams checked the security of the bank’s technology department. No errors were found in it. Since the card money was stolen through Add Money from the bKash and Nagad apps, the MFS institutions will have to clarify the matter.

Bangladesh Bank sources said that the accounts from which this money was transferred to bKash and Nagad were withdrawn to Nagad within a few minutes. Since then, these numbers have been blocked. This suggests that a skilled fraud ring is involved.

When asked, SCB Bangladesh Managing Director (MD) Lutful Habib told Business Mirror, ‘So far, 54 customers have complained to us. We have reported the matter to the law enforcement agencies and Bangladesh Bank. They are investigating the matter. Surely, the real picture will come out in their investigation and the culprits will be identified and brought to justice.’

Lutful Habib also said, ‘No weakness was found in the bank’s technology department in this incident. The incident occurred from the “Add Money” option of MFS. For this reason, we have temporarily stopped transferring money from our bank’s card to the MFS app. A decision will be made to re-introduce this facility after the real information comes out.’