KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 — Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen today suggested that the government make it compulsory for banks to reimburse scam victims for their losses.

He suggested that at least a significant portion of it should be reimbursed unless the bank can prove that the account holders were part of the scam.

"In my opinion, if it becomes compulsory to pay compensation to victims of online scams, then only will banks spend more money to upgrade the e-banking system security and introduce tighter SOPs and mechanisms for online cash transfers,” he said.

He made a comparison to a phishing scam involving OCBC account holders in Singapore, where at least 469 customers had been affected with losses totalling at least S$8.5 million (RM28.2 million).

A month after the scam happened in January 2022, OCBC began reimbursing victims with "goodwill payouts”.

The next month, the police announced that they had arrested nine men and four women, aged between 19 and 22, for their alleged involvement in the scam.

"The matter was solved in six months,” Chong said.

He also said that banks can afford the payments, based on the net profits of the top six banks in the country.

"For banks, the losses of the scams make up only a fraction of their profits.

"But for individual account holders, the amount lost is the savings of a lifetime,” he said.

It was only fair for banks to compensate the victims, he added.