When All Pockets Went Dry

As I waited for a friend yesterday, I dashed across the road to 'Shop N Save Supermarket' in Bishan, to get myself a fruit drink, mango and grapes - I paid the S$10.32 purchase with my card.

Thank God, the purchase done and transaction accepted in less than 5 minutes.

But it will not be the case if was Monday, the day before.
For the first time in history, a big system had crashed that left customers and businesses in the dark for 7 hours.

In a country where almost all payments made by almost all walks of life with cards, it was definitely turned to total chaos.

A father I know, had to return his 2 trolleys of grocery shopping back to the shelving and freezers as his only POSBank card was not accepted.
He went home empty-handed as he could not withdrew money from the ATM.

Another father ran from one ATM to another for his son's pocket money and the wife's marketing.
Cold sweat appeared and he feared for the worst - His saving and  salary are all gone  - Save for the minimum required of S$2.00.

I heard a few end up borrowing from friends for breakfast to be paid.

******

An Indonesian friend used to laugh at us as Singaporeans, her remark, are slow at counting money (mind you, Indonesian currencies are in millions of rupiah), and she always insisted me to rely on cash rather than a card.

With this latest incidence, her saying does make sense. It holds some truth in it

******

 

Jul 7, 2010 - DBS Chief Says 'Sorry'

 

 

Chief executive, Mr Piyush Gupta said: 'We are sorry for what happened. We took numerous measures to minimise inconvenience caused by the temporary disruption in services. - Photo: Reuters

 

DBS Bank apologised to customers yesterday after Monday's big systems crash that left customers and businesses in the lurch and in the dark for about seven hours.

Chief executive, Mr Piyush Gupta said: 'We are sorry for what happened. We took numerous measures to minimise inconvenience caused by the temporary disruption in services.
'We have commenced a full scale investigation and I am treating this matter with utmost priority.'
Mr Gupta's comments come after Monday's massive network failure that knocked out more than 1,000 ATMs.
Irate customers could not access the bank's internet and mobile banking facilities, while payments made on DBS debit and credit cards could not be processed.
To cope with the situation, DBS made arrangements to deploy additional staff at branches and its call centre. Cheques were honoured and urgent cash withdrawals up to $500 were permitted.

******

Yes. An islandwide ATM disruptions to DBS-POSB machines.

DBS detected the problem at 3am and many residents discovered the failure in the early morning.
Internet and mobile banking were down too.

However, services were soon restored at 10 am while other systems including credit cards, NETS, AXS, Internet and mobile banking by lunchtime.

Additional manpower was deployed to branches and call centre to assist with customer queries as 'technical difficulties' caused the breakdown.

DBS assured customers that all funds were safe, and apologised again to customers for the inconvenience caused.

******

The above incident had rippled the country.

Just wondering how would Singaporeans react if really the incident below reported by The Star does happen in the island.

A tidal wave?

And, it's not the first time.

Sunday July 4, 2010 - Cops Suspect Inside Job At ATM Theft Bids, 4 Arrested

KUALA LUMPUR: When the alarm failed to trigger in two recent attempts to steal from two automated teller machines (ATM), the signs pointed to an inside job. Police zeroed in on a security firm and arrested four men well-versed in the security features of such machines yesterday.
The men had tried twice over Thursday and Friday to grab money from the ATMs in Kelana Jaya and Puchong but failed.
In both cases, the alarms were not triggered, causing police to be suspicious. Selangor police chief Deputy Commis­sioner Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said the suspects, aged between 20 and 30, were familiar with the security features of the ATMs.
“That is probably why the security alarms on the premises and within the ATMs were not triggered. The suspects have been remanded for four days pending investigations,” he told a press conference in Dataran Ampang Point yesterday.
Sources revealed that police were also looking into similar unsolved cases in the Klang Valley to see if they matched the modus operandi of the latest failed thefts.
On Thursday, thieves tried to steal money from an ATM kiosk at a petrol station in Taman Tenaga, Jalan Puchong.
However, they fled when they saw policemen patrolling the area.
On Friday, a supermarket emplo­yee discovered a break-in at about 7am at a supermarket in Kelana Jaya.
The suspects had ripped through a dry wall to gain access to the ATM at about 4am before using a blowtorch to try to get to the money but aborted their plan and fled before the supermarket opened for business.
They were able to by-pass two security systems without triggering the alarm.

Money Temptation

An ex-neighbour, who worked as a bank-teller had once told me, his good friend, a bank-teller too, was too tempted with monies around him, that the good friend brought home several thousand ringgit of the newly delivered money meant for the next day's business after they knocked off from their overtime at around 10pm.

He called up the mother to inform of her son's temptation.
The mother persuaded him to return the money but he claimed that the money was righfully his as he's overworked and underpaid. 

The mother did not sleep the whole night but sat on her praying rug, praying for God to enlighten him.

The next day, after the morning prayer, the good friend went to work earlier than usual, placed the money where it was supposed to be, and submitted his resignation letter.
No one knew about the incidence except my good neighbour.

To forget the whole episode, my neighbour too, resigned from the bank.

******

Then, on another occasion, I was at a house where it was affected by flood in Segamat a few years ago.

My friend was only able to clean her house after 3 days the flood receded as she still had to work during the flood. Worst still, she worked almost 12 hours daily. 

Although she works in the bank counting money, but during the flood, she brought her iron to work - to iron money.

Flood water seeped into the ATM machine at her working place and all monies in the machine were completely wet. 

How was it to see lots and lots of money? I asked her.
Whatever is hers is hers. Whatever is not, working with money is not for the gullible, she said.

Yes, I admit. I used to collect  fees  and it sum up to thousands.

Money can be said as the essence of life or the root of evil, any which statement we choose.

Today's Straits Times stumped me as I can assume that this immature youth's proud parents, whose son work in Singapore are now ashamed. 

He will be barred from entering the country. His future?




Jailed For Stealing $50,000  

A CERTIS Cisco vault assistant, who was in charge of keeping cash boxes and helped himself to S$50,000, was jailed 1 1/2 years on Monday. Worker Lim Ming Yao pleaded guilty in a district court to stealing the money and taking it to Malaysia.

The court heard that the 19-year-old started work at Certis Cisco in April.
As the vault assistant, the Malaysian was to assist the vault custodian in issuing and receiving these boxes containing cash for automated teller machines or holding the cash earnings of retail businesses.

On June 5, Lim cut open a box in the inner sanctum of the vault at the Certis Cisco Secure Logistics centre in Jalan Afifi and stuffed the money in his jeans pocket and later placed the money in a sling bag.
After his shift ended at 7am the next day, Lim signed out taking the sling bag full of money, and crossed over to Johor after 8am.

Certis Cisco reported the theft on June 9 - four days after the offence.

However, within weeks, Lim was tired of life on the run and surrendered himself with $41,150 and RM900 (S$380) on him.
Asking District Judge Lee Poh Choo for a lenient sentence, Lim said that he surrendered himself because he realised his mistake.

The Malaysian was jailed 1 1/2 years for stealing from his employer and jailed nine months for moving criminal proceeds amounting to $50,000 out of the country. As the sentences were ordered to run together, he will have to serve only 1 1/2 years in jail.