It is incredible when you think about it: BCA, one of the largest banks in the country beset with electronic theft at its ATMs in Bali and God-knows where and the bank, after more than a day, has yet to issue any formal statement about it.
Is BCA concerned? Is anyone taking this seriously? Will other customers be affected? Is their money safe? Is it true that BCA will reimburse all the money lost? What about the bank official who told a Twitterer that the problem was isolated to only those who use online banking? Is the problem in Bali only or is it prevalent in other areas as well. What should customers do to have peace of mind?
These are the questions that must be coursing through the minds of BCA customers (including Unspun who’s put his meagre life savings in the bank and trusted them to provide me with some security). But so far BCA, has officially kept quiet. Their Wadirut did speak to kompass.com but it was merely to express his suspicion that the reports went first to the police rather than to them and it wasn’t clear whether it was the bank’s official stance. The bank has been weirdly silent, creating an information vacuum around the case.
The problem with information vacuums have a way of encouraging speculation and hoaxes and this “statement” (below) putatively from BCA and signed by someone at Risk Management has been making the rounds in the BB Messenger circuit.
Unspun’s sources say that it is a hoax but BCA higher ups have been saying that its “unofficial” when asked about it (why call it unofficial if its a downright hoax is a mystery to Unspun). The sources also say that the higher ups seem quite unperturbed by all the fuss around the fraud cases and dismissed this statement as a “black campaign” against them.
This is a bad sign for BCA. It suggests that the powers that be may not quite be in touch with the reality out there and instead of treating rumors, hoaxes and misinformation as serious matters that may impact their bottom line and reputation, they have succumbed to denial and a feeling of “impunity” – the we-are-so-big-nothing-can-hurt-us attitude.
But the incident is unfolding. Would it all blow over and BCA and its customers live happily forever, or will it all turn into a nightmare of crisis-like proportions? Time will tell.
The hoax BCA statement making the rounds on BB Messenger:
HOT NEWS BCA :
Memang benar, ada kasus atm di bali dan sekarang mulai merambah ke jakarta.
Untuk
yang di bali, si pelaku memasang alatnya di hard rock. Jd nsb bca yang
pernah datang ambil atm di hard rock taun lalu, banyak yang kena.Untuk pelaku yang di jakarta, skrg dah tertangkap dan sedang menjalani proses sidang.
Pelakunya dicurigai sindikat internasional.
Mreka semacam menghacker data kita.
Mreka biasanya beroperasi di ATM yang switching, permata (krn gak ada kamera).
Skrg BCA sudah melakukan control pengaman lebih ketat lagi. (udah nyampe direksi)
Untuk nasabah BCA di bali diwajibkan ganti kartu ATM.
Dan untuk nasabah BCA lainnya dianjurkan untuk ganti PIN atm.
Wistina Gita Utami
| PT. Bank Central Asia, Tbk. | Risk Management | Loan Portfolio Monitoring and Analysis Unit |
for earlier development read this
Oh, and yes, apparently BCA has appointed a PR firm to handle the situation but its one of those firms with an initial for a name and nobody Unspun knows has heard of it, except for one friend who says that they usually handle BCA’s Public Service Ads. Rather strange credentials to be handling a crisis-like situation.
Unspun 
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