AOC receives over 5,200 complaints in three days but only 107 bank accounts unlocked
AOC got 5,274 complaints on frozen bank accounts in three days, but only 107 accounts were unfrozen after callers proved their innocence.
The Anti-Online Scam Operation Centre (AOC) received more than 5,200 complaints over suspended or frozen bank accounts between Sunday and Tuesday, but only 107 callers succeeded in convincing officials to unfreeze their accounts, the Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry announced.
Amid public outcry from account holders unable to make transactions, the DES Ministry ordered the AOC to accept complaints via its 1441 hotline.
The ministry clarified that in most cases accounts were not entirely suspended; rather, only suspicious amounts transferred from suspected mule accounts were frozen pending verification.
Between Sunday and Tuesday, the AOC 1441 hotline received 5,274 complaints. Of these, 1,748 callers provided sufficient information for officials to review, while 3,526 failed to prove their innocence.
From the 1,748 cases where information was submitted, 107 accounts were unfrozen, the ministry said.
The DES Ministry stressed that banks, acting under the AOC’s jurisdiction, freeze only suspicious amounts linked to mule accounts.
However, if police suspect an account is itself a mule account, they can invoke the Criminal Procedure Code to suspend the entire account.
