𝗠𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗘𝘅-𝗖𝗙𝗢 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗳𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗺𝘀

This weekend’s edition of The Edge Malaysia featured a startling case of executive impersonation and fraud — revealed in the context of the ongoing Industrial Court dispute between Maybank Malaysia and its former CFO. The allegations emerged following her departure from the bank after an internal inquiry.

The impersonation scam showcases the increasingly sophisticated tactics used by fraudsters — including coordinated messages from multiple impersonated individuals and possibly a deepfake Zoom video call.

A brief chronology of the events alleged in the papers before the Industrial Court:

𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟰 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰, 𝟳.𝟰𝟳𝗮𝗺: The CFO received a message on her personal phone (and not her work phone) from an unknown Malaysian number.

The sender purported to be Alvin Lee, CEO of Maybank Singapore. The Lee impersonator requested her to make a payment from Maybank Malaysia on behalf of Maybank Singapore. This would be a transfer of approximately US$985,000 (RM4.77 million) to a Hong Kong entity via JP Morgan.

𝟭𝟮.𝟱𝟯𝗽𝗺: She attended a Zoom call with the Lee impersonator. She said that the Zoom call lasted for five minutes and she said there was nothing unusual about the person's demeanour or body language on the Zoom call.

Subsequently, she received on her personal phone WhatsApp messages from another unknown number, purporting to be Maybank Malaysia's President and Group CEO. This second impersonator supported the Lee impersonator's request for Maybank Malaysia to make the transfer of the US$985,000.

She arranged for the transfer to be effected. JP Morgan had held back the onward payment for an extended period. This was a red flag to the CFO that something was amiss.

𝟵.𝟮𝟲𝗽𝗺: Now, she contacted the real Alvin Lee on his official phone to ask about the messages. She realised the deception and instructed a cancellation of the transfer.

𝟭𝟬.𝟬𝟴𝗽𝗺: JP Morgan confirmed that it had successfully held back the transaction. No financial loss occurred.

That was indeed a narrow escape. But demonstrates the multi-layered tactics of fraudsters, and how senior C-suite executives may be targeted.

Arising from those background events, Maybank issued a show cause letter to her and carried out an inquiry on the actions and the standard of reporting she took after the events. All of that is now pending determination before the Industrial Court.

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Source: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeshih/



This post has been edited by contestchris: Apr 27 2025, 01:38 PM

Maybank's response: https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/753107

Reference is made to the publication in The Edge of an article entitled “Maybank CFO’s sacking-the allegations and rebuttals” of April 28, 2025.

This article is not endorsed nor authorised by Maybank and was published without any prior notice to Maybank. The article contains inaccuracies, apart from being incomplete.

Maybank reinforces that the matters alleged in the article are confidential. Further, as the subject matter is currently undergoing legal proceedings, the publication of the article also contravenes and prejudices the intent and spirit of the said proceedings. Maybank reserves its rights and is seeking legal advice.

Is it possible for the CFO of our largest financial corporation to be scammed in this manner? How?!?!?!?

As of 2 years ago memang use Zoom. Maybe now they changed it dont know

If anyone got full article please share.

Some new details from The Edge's full article:

"According to the show cause letter, at 1.16pm, the Lee impersonator asked Khalijah via WhatsApp about Maybank's bank balance, to which she responded that, "Maybank's balance is in the billions!".

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LMAO what kind of CFO is this?

I wonder how she got the gall to sue Maybank. Her own defence makes her look foolish.

Even if she had the authority to transfer that sum, she acted in a reckless manner.

The full article has got so many red flags.

- The Zoom call lasted for 5 minutes and was cut short due to "connection issues"
- There is an element of time pressure - must be done quick
- 3 unknown phone numbers messaged her
- She claims they mentioned discussing off company channels to prevent insider information from leaking
- She never bothered to verify the entity she transferred the money to
- Even after JPM put a halt to the transaction, it took her a whole 3 more hours to "it then occurred to me that the payment instructions might have been a fraudulent attempt"

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To me, this person does not have enough smarts to be the Group CFO of the largest financial institution in Malaysia and also the largest listed company in the country. Maybank is also the second largest company in Malaysia after Petronas.

How did she get up there?

Maybank sure malu they got this kind of quality personnel, not surprising as they're being propped up by GLICs.

And I don't understand the logic of this person, when it is clear she kena basic scam and never took any actions whatsoever to ascertain the truth.

Looks like Maybank hire C-suite to be "pak turut" without critical thinking? Hmmmm

"According to the show cause letter, at 1.16pm, the Lee impersonator asked Khalijah via WhatsApp about Maybank's bank balance, to which she responded that, "Maybank's balance is in the billions!".

My favourite bit of the article.