One after Another

I wonder when will the suing of the Directors of CTOS and CTOS will stop. The way I see it, anybody who is blacklisted after a CTOS check will take defamation suit of millions of ringgit. And if the Claimants wins they will become instant millionaires thus able to settle their debts. As far as I could remember, this is the third such suit against CTOS. Moral of the story, never sell things that does not belong to you. I wonder....

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©The Star (Used by permission)
By M.Mageswari

KUALA LUMPUR: A businessman has filed a defamation suit against four CTOS companies and its two directors for allegedly causing his name to be blacklisted by financial institutions.

Seeni Mohamed Mohamed Ali, 42, has named CTOS Sdn Bhd, CTOS Data Systems Sdn Bhd, CTOS-EMR Sdn Bhd, CTOS Business Systems Sdn Bhd and brothers Chung Tze Keong, 52, and Chung Tze Wen, 49, as defendants in the civil suit.

The plaintiff said that the defendants had inserted information of a civil suit pending against him at the Shah Alam High Court in their database.

He claimed that the Shah Alam civil suit, which was initiated against him on Sept 10, 2003, was still being disputed there.

He said the company's move had resulted in him failing to get loans to finance his business, or to buy a van for use at his restaurant, or getting credit card facilities from three banks and a company for the last three years.

The plaintiff claimed that the four had rejected his loan applications because of the data provided by CTOS Sdn Bhd.

Speaking to reporters after filing the suit yesterday, Seeni Mohamed said the banks had rejected his applications after their search with CTOS Sdn Bhd.

However, Seeni Mohamed said he had evidence from Bank Negara to support his claims that he did not owe money to any bank.

“Everything is okay. I just do not know where CTOS got information about me. They do not know the outcome of the Shah Alam suit but display it in their record. It is unfair as I did not give them the consent to do so,” he added.

In the statement of claim, Seeni Mohamed said that CTOS Sdn Bhd had failed to update its records, although it been notified via a letter dated June 22, 2005, over the matter.

He claimed further that the defendants’ action had implied that he was a liar, a compulsive debtor and an irresponsible person.

The plaintiff claimed that the defendants had violated Section 73 of the Computer Crime Act 1997 and Human Rights Commission Act 1999 when they collected, sold or distributed incomplete information on him to a third party without his permission.

He is seeking a declaration from the court to expunge or cancel the data on him from their database.

He is also asking for a declaration prohibiting the defendants from forwarding his particulars to a third party.

He is asking for RM100mil in damages and any other relief deemed fit by the court.

CITOS.....are they relevant?

I am "blacklisted". That is what the Credit Tip-Off Service Sdn Bhd (CTOS) say. Recently, I wanted to apply a loan to refinance my house and there you go I am blacklisted due to a 2003 summon case in Kuala Lumpur. That debt was settled moons ago and even though settled, the black mark of a really bad history was recorded. As such I'm blacklisted forever.

Agreeing with Datuk M. Kayveas (looks like this is my first time agreeing to a deputy minister from the BN government) who took initiative to bring this CITOS out in the open. He said the government had never issued a licence to the company to conduct searches and store personal information of the public. He further says that the government is concerned by banks and financial institutions using the services of this company to obtain information on their clients and the public.

The function of CTOS is basically collecting financial information of individuals and keyed in a database feed by lawyers, banks, financial institution etc. Though it helps in getting information on loan applicant status, unfortunately the database is never updated to show the actual status of the applicant. And as such led to abuse of the system and causing hardship to bona fide applicants. Thus making CTOS very irrelevant as information are not updated and without doubt invite many complaints by the general public as well having divulged excessive personal information.

Some employers apparently do a CTOS search to check on the background of potential employees. If the company does not update the information, this can jeopardise the opportunity of the person who is applying for a job.

CTOS does helped in achieving it's objective BUT CTOS MUST be regulated in order for it to be relevant. Either it be scraped (as there is CECRIS) or put under the purview of Bank Negara. Acts such as a Data Protection Act should be introduced. In reading the UK legislation, where there should be an inclusion of a right of individual to insist that a database operator amend information to correct any mistakes, failing which a report could be lodged with the Data Protection Registrar. Or maybe a private Act of Parliament to further enhance the duty and scope of CTOS, such as probable CTOS Act. At least, CTOS with such a regulation, it would be seen relevant to the the country's financial strength