If you aren’t the type to check your bank statements thoroughly, you might want to start doing so, because even little transactions can add up to a large amount.
Received OTP SMSes Not Hers
On 4 April, Sherrene Tan made a post on Facebook detailing how she discovered that multiple erroneous transactions had been made via foodpanda using her bank details.
“I’ve filed [a] police report against foodpanda for unauthorised charges and dishonest used of my bank card today,” she wrote.
She recounted receiving a few One-Time Password (OTP) SMSes to her phone for foodpanda orders that were not made by her.
After contacting her bank, she was told to “ignore the OTP SMS” as the transaction would not go through.
Additionally, the bank said users occasionally key in the wrong phone number by mistake. Hence, Tan did not take any action when receiving the OTP messages.
Contacted Bank and Found Unauthorised Transactions
However, on the evening of 4 April, the bank called her to verify if multiple transactions had been made by her on the foodpanda platform and she denied making those transactions.
Alarmed, Tan told the caller not to authorise any transactions and said she would call the bank card centre to cancel her card.
After the phone call, she immediately contacted the bank and found five unauthorised transactions made from January till the date of the call.
Each transaction had been around $28 to $29 with the total amounting to $120.
Tan also shared that the OTP and transaction amount were not the same. The timings also differed by a few hours or days.
Filed Police Report
Tan then filed a police report and said she would provide the report to the bank and foodpanda.
She ended the post by saying she wanted to share her experience with people who do not do bank reconciliation for their accounts on a regular basis.
“Most of us may overlook some small payments (few dollars up to $30 per transaction) in our bank statements as not many would do bank reconciliation on each and every payment shows on bank statements,” she wrote.
Tan also urged readers to check their bank accounts when receiving OTP SMSes for payments not made by them.
When contacted by AsiaOne, foodpanda said they were “aware of the situation” and would cooperate with authorities to investigate the matter.
The food delivery platform added, “We urge any customers who suspect any fraudulent activity on their credit cards to contact the bank, report the matter to us and make a police report as soon as possible.”
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