MAS Imposes Capital Requirements on OCBC for Inadequate Scam Response

Richard Marley
May 27, 2022
2 minutes read
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Additional capital requirements have been imposed on the OCBC bank by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) after a spotty response to phishing scams.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has placed additional capital requirements on the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) Bank after passing an inadequate response to phishing scams in December. An amount of around S$330 million will be required by OCBC to hold up as additional capital.

The assistant managing director for banking and insurance at MAS, Marcus Lim said that it is the prime duty of financial corporations to incorporate robust solutions to combat these scams.

While commenting on the official website of MAS, Lim commented “This means ensuring that their controls remain effective against evolving scam tactics, and prompt actions are taken as soon as a scam is detected”. He further added that MAS is currently working closely with the industry and other agencies on dealing with these scams and strengthening the collective defences against them.

The bank came under severe criticism as it lost S$13.7 million in scams while affecting around 790 victims in January. The scam was carried out by sending SMS to the victims through a spoofed phone number. The messages claimed that they were being sent through the bank providing links to a fake website to provide login credentials for resolving the issues with their bank accounts.

The CEO of OCBC Bank, Helen Wong, said: “While we took various actions in December to stem the scam, we should have responded faster and better to early signs of the attacks.” Moreover, she added that the phishing attacks in December reached a level of realism which were not seen in the previous attacks.

The OCBC has enforced an independent firm to review its systems, as noted by MAS. “Deficiencies were noted in the bank’s mitigation of identified risks, pre- and post-transaction controls, incident management and complaints handling, resulting in delays in containment measures and customer response time.”

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The scammers do texts that seem legitimate to lure people into providing their personal information, which is then either used to defraud victims out of thousands of dollars or sold on the black market for profit. The messages urge the receiver to click on a hyperlink to track, redirect, or pick up a package while claiming to be a shipping status update. Sometimes they request postal address confirmation from the addressee.

How Much Have Australians Lost to Scams?

As per the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, scammers cost Australians over $2 billion in 2021. The amount is predicted to increase to over $4 billion by the end of the year. Customers reported over 57,000 instances of dubious calls and messages, making phishing the most prevalent type of scam.

Chris Goldsmid, Commander of AFP’s cybercrime operations, said that as the holidays approached, fraudsters specifically targeted people who were anxious and distracted, such as those awaiting multiple deliveries. “Scam activity, in particular, is profit-driven,” he said. “Whatever the criminals can do to monetise the information they steal from the public, they’ll do that.”

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Suggested Read: Black Friday Shoppers Alert: Digital Scam Victims Lose an Average of £1,000 Each

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Talent Acquisition Fraud - Hiring Legitimate Candidates with Identity Verification
Along with the rise in virtual and remote work, the number of cases of recruitment fraud is increasing at an unprecedented pace, urging authorities to take decisive action against criminals. Especially the pandemic resulted in huge mass layoffs giving setbacks to many sectors, ultimately creating massive inflation across the globe.

Now that the pandemic’s effects are diminishing, 97 million new job roles are to be expected by the next year, which will expedite fraudulent practices in the talent acquisition sector. Companies should be on their guard and implement a joint action plan to counter rising recruitment scams to secure their onboarding process.

How do Online Recruiting Scams Work?

The scammers fraudulently use an established company’s name, logo and even the details of real employees working in human resource departments to post jobs on recruiting websites or other social media platforms.

Keeping their credentials almost identical to the official company’s details, they send emails to job-seekers or post fake jobs. As soon as interested candidates apply, they conduct interviews to get sensitive information about candidates through telephonic or on-site interviews.

Through fake interviews and telephonic/email conversations, criminals ask for sensitive personal information, particularly social security, ID number and bank account details that job seekers often provide, paving the way for identity fraud.

In some cases, the scammers even seek money from the candidates in the name of background checks or certifications which directly cost them financial losses. In the US alone, users lost $86 million due to fake job opportunities posted on the internet.

Spotting the Signs of Recruitment Fraud

Recruitment fraud is the most unfortunate part of modern job hunting, where criminals prey upon candidates’ eagerness to find work for their living by creating scam job opportunities.

Here are a few signs that can help job seekers spot fraudulent elements during the recruitment process:

Legitimate hiring managers and employers never ask applicants to make any financial transaction in their personal or company account. Always say No to any person who is asking you to send money for any recruitment purpose.

Although the majority of companies ask the candidates to provide their personal information, this step usually comes when the recruitment process is near to complete. Any person asking for sensitive information like bank account details, social security number, date of birth or identity details could be a scammer who must be turned down.

The majority of companies recruit their employees using their official email accounts; rather than contacting the person through common numbers or email addresses. Any job letter/offer from any such account could be a fake one.

Legitimate recruiters always follow a comprehensive plan to get all the relevant information about the candidate. Any person offering you a job without following a standard hiring process raises suspicions.
High Profile Criminal Cases of Recruitment Fraud

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, petrol prices ballooned worldwide, increasing inflation and the number of desperate job seekers. Through fake job postings, criminals exploit such individuals and get involved in recruitment fraud.

Several cases of talent acquisition fraud have been witnessed in the recent past encouraging global law enforcement authorities to take firm action against them. Let’s have a look at some of the high-profile cases:

1. Europol Arrested a Gang Involved in €20 Million Employment Fraud

In 2021, law enforcement authorities of the European Union dismantled a gang which was involved in an employment scam. The criminals were offering fake jobs in the construction sector to labourers while demanding an initial fee to pay.

It has been estimated that they illegally stole €20 million from the people in a few years, urging authorities to take strict action against them after the victims filed multiple complaints. The case is still in court, where their penalties are yet to be decided.

2. Hampton Gang Member Convicted for Pandemic Employment Fraud

Law enforcement authorities in the US have arrested a criminal for his involvement in a pandemic-related employment fraud. The Police have also stated that the criminal has a whole gang behind him, and they are trying to bring them under the law as well.

As per the investigation, the criminal was taking money from people to get jobs for them by submitting fake documents to various companies. The court has sentenced him to 27 months in jail and vowed to take down the whole gang working behind him.

Talent Acquisition Fraud and the Role of Law Enforcement Authorities

Due to the rising cases of recruitment scams across the globe resulting in financial losses of millions of dollars, law enforcement authorities of various jurisdictions are taking stringent action against criminals.

1. FBI Issued Instructions to Avoid Employment Scam

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned people to beware of cyber criminals using fake job listings to target applicants’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

FBI has instructed the common people to only apply for jobs through the official channels of companies and not pay attention to any emails, phone calls or messages received through unofficial accounts.

Employment fraud has been termed as a potential crime by the FBI, costing US citizens $59 million in 2020. The authorities have also instructed citizens not to provide any sensitive personal details like bank accounts, social security or identification number to any job recruiter through emails or phone calls.

2. UK Government – Raising Awareness of Employment Scams

The UK government has also taken drastic steps to guide their citizens about employment scams and how to avoid them. It has been strongly recommended that people apply for jobs only through the official portals or companies’ websites.

In their detailed guidance, the government has also guided job seekers to verify any email, phone call or message through certain checks, including verifying all details from the company’s websites.

It has also been instructed to the people not to proceed with any job application asking for money or any other personal details from you and not even open any spam link attached to the email.

How Shufti Pro can Help

With transforming technologies, the overall market is growing to produce more job opportunities for interested candidates. As per the surveys, this number is expected to grow in the coming years, increasing recruitment fraud risks.

Through talent acquisition scams, criminals not only defraud job seekers but also damage the reputation of established companies. So it is in their higher interest to find and implement a credible solution that efficiently mitigates the risks of stolen identity or credentials.

Shufti Pro’s identity verification services present an ideal option to counter this problem through its advanced identification features, including document authentication, facial recognition and address verification.

Want to learn more about identity verification services for eliminating recruitment fraud?

Connect with a KYC Expert

MAS Imposes Capital Requirements on OCBC for Inadequate Scam Response

How Much Have Australians Lost to Scams?

How do Online Recruiting Scams Work?

Spotting the Signs of Recruitment Fraud

High Profile Criminal Cases of Recruitment Fraud

1. Europol Arrested a Gang Involved in €20 Million Employment Fraud

2. Hampton Gang Member Convicted for Pandemic Employment Fraud

Talent Acquisition Fraud and the Role of Law Enforcement Authorities

1. FBI Issued Instructions to Avoid Employment Scam

2. UK Government – Raising Awareness of Employment Scams

How Shufti Pro can Help

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