Today I received two SMS messages. The first was a scam informing me that I have Maybank Reward Points expiring soon and I was to tap on a phishing/fake link. This message is not new and I bet most of you who hold a Maybank credit card would have received this scam message. It is similar to the Maxis Scam via SMS where both these said scams were sent via Genuine SMS numbers!

The other message who from UOB and it was something new…

The scammer wants to visit us! Wow!

For UOB to send the message to their cardholders, it means the scam is real and all of you should beware.

As I have reiterated over and over again, never disclose an personal information over the phone. If for whatever you are in doubt, just hang up the phone and call the number behind your card to speak to a genuine Customer Representative; and anything related to your card will be reflected in the bank’s system including who has contacted you.

Once I made a complain to card issuer, and a person called me in respect to the complain and asked for personal information which I refused to give over the phone because he called me…. the banks, BNM and Police have warned us over and over again never to disclose our personal information but the person who called me claiming to be from the bank is asking me for it!

Please differentiate between you calling the number behind the card, i.e. you keyed in the number versus tapping on a link which can be fake (very easy to do as I can link anything in this blog to any URL) – when you call (key in the number) you are assured you are not speaking to a scammer.

Anyway, I checked UOB website and the warning about people claiming to be law enforcement officer or bank officer wanting to collect your card is still not stated. Below are some (not all) of scams tactics at UOB relating to Scams:

Get an iPhone!

I have reiterated over and over again that we should have separate phones for different uses. Nowadays Mobile Banking Apps are used for Secure Verification purposes and therefore it makes it even more important that we have a separate phone just for Mobile Banking and nothing else!

And the phone should be an iPhone!!! Scammers and you yourself can install software with apk files into our Android phones! I even created an apk file for Android phones previously for those who have the guts to install the GenX GenY GenZ App, haha.

So get a iPjone solely for your Mobile Banking Apps. You can then get a cheap Android Phone (such as Samsung A55) to go surf the internet, play games, download free stuff and etc where your Banking Details will not be compromised since there is no data stored in the Android Phone related to your banking details!

And now there is iPhone16e where I have shared previously that I bought one for about RM2.5K only. After I shared about the cheap iPhone 16e, a few people actually messaged me to thank me as they bought the phone for their parents.