Hope

Finally the banks will be having SMS alerts for withdrawals. Most of the major banks will implement this strategy by 30 June, 2012. So the next time you receive a SMS withdrawal when you didn't do it, then you know you are a victim of card skimming (hopefully not).

The police had already caught the syndicate responsible for the card skimming in a matter of days. The ATM card skimming scheme had affected about 700 of DBS customers involving $1million stolen. Below are the new security measures implemented: 1) customers who have not used their credit and/or debit cards outside singapore since Jul 1st last year will no longer be able to do cash withdrawals overseas until they enable the function. 2) those who want to activate the function will also receive a SMS alert notification confirming their request. This feature alone is very helpful IMHO.

Singapore banks like DBS, OCBC and UOB are share prices are lower from their 2011 peak. But still it may not be a good time to pick these shares up since analyst report that the poor economic outlook will have impact on the bank growth, as reported on ST today, money section.

Citibank iPhone app is pretty cool :) locations of branches are shown easily In fact most of the Singapore banking apps have branches, ATM, and cash deposit machines listed on the map. So even if you do not like online or phone banking, you can still download the app just to find your nearest ATM. Useful stuff!

DBS and POSB card members will get an exclusive 15% off for a deluxe (8-10 pax) prosperity abalone Yu Sheng. The normal per pax is $68.80. There pineapple cakes are good too , I love it.... Go and check it out :)

Remember to check your bank accounts to see are you affected by the fraud. And this is also a heads up for customers and banks to step up their security measures whenever applicable. Although this could be a rare incident, do practice more discretion especially if you do lots of online banking, because nowadays there's a lot of syndicates out hunting for your money.