In Wong Bair Lim v Malayan Banking Berhad, the Sessions Court struck out a claim involving unauthorised online transfers from the plaintiff’s account to several unknown accounts on the same day. The plaintiff had immediately informed the bank of the unauthorised transfers and sought its assistance. The transactions were allegedly triggered when the plaintiff scanned a QR code provided by a third party to make an online payment, after which his mobile phone suddenly turned off. The bank was unable to reverse the transactions, and the plaintiff sued the bank for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, among others.
The Sessions Court found that the plaintiff was a victim of an online scam. The bank’s online portal was found to be secure, and the transactions were carried out through the plaintiff’s own device and authorised through the bank’s system. The plaintiff failed to prove that the bank’s online portal suffered any outage or interference at the material time. The Court held that the plaintiff suffered loss due to his own negligence in scanning and uploading the QR code prior to the transactions. Further, the relationship between the parties was governed by the bank’s terms and conditions, pursuant to which the plaintiff was required to verify all transactions before approving them through the bank’s online system.
An earlier version of this case summary was published by Foong Cheng Leong on LinkedIn.
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