Businesswoman a victim of identity theft

TWO years after reporting the loss of her MyKad, a businesswoman has found it being used to apply for four bank loans totalling RM119,100, a credit card and a telephone line, as well as to register a company.

Tung Chi Ling, 32, said these were the ones she managed to find out so far and she was afraid that the identity theft could have stretched beyond that.

“I have no idea if my lost MyKad has been used for shady businesses or to borrow large amounts from loan sharks,” she told a press conference in George Town yesterday.

Tung said she only discovered the fraud after getting a call from a friend working at Citibank on Sept 17 asking her if she had applied for a personal loan of RM27,000 there that day.

“I told her I did not but she said there was an application form there with my particulars. I went to the bank the next day and found out that the application was made with my lost MyKad,” she said.

Tung said she lodged a report at the Patani Road police station that day and then checked with Bank Negara and found out that the holder of her lost MyKad had also applied for personal and car loans at three other banks between Sept 4 and Sept 16.

“One bank had approved a personal loan of RM34,000 and another bank approved a car loan for RM28,100, while a personal loan for RM30,000 was still being processed by a third bank,” she said.

She also later found out that the lost MyKad was used to to register a company, to apply for a credit card where the person had already used RM7,000, and to get a fixed telephone line in Tanjung Bungah.

“When the police checked the address where the telephone was registered, they found the house vacant and the building owner living in another state,” she said, adding that she had lodged five police reports from Sept 18 to Sept 25.

Tung said the police believed that the woman who held her lost MyKad was not working alone and that a syndicate was involved in the identity theft.

“I know the police are investigating the matter but I hope they will act fast to catch the culprits,” she said.

She also said she was now being harassed by a car dealer to sign some documents so that the car bought under the fraudulent loan could be sold off.

Pulau Tikus assemblyman Koay Teng Hai, who organised the press conference, urged the National Registration Department and the Federal Government to put in place a system that would protect the citizens and prevent abuses concerning the MyKad.

“If a credit card or a handphone SIM card is lost, all you have to do is make a phone call and all subsequent transactions would be suspended. But there is no such system for the MyKad, which is the most important document for every Malaysian,” he said

Source: The Star 24.10.2008