S’pore UOB Customer’s Credit Card Compromised, Allegedly Asked To Pay Interest Despite Account Being Locked

UOB Customer Vents Frustration Over Bank’s Customer Service After Her KrisFlyer Card Gets Compromised

Credit card users may empathise with feeling panicked from waiting prolonged periods to get on a call with the bank.

This panic amplified for one United Overseas Bank (UOB) credit card user as she had trouble communicating with the bank over her compromised credit card.

She also alleged that she was threatened to pay up despite her account being locked, as investigations over the fraudulent transactions are ongoing.

MS News has reached out to UOB for comment, but they have yet to respond.

UOB customer’s credit card compromised

In a lengthy post on Complaint Singapore Facebook group, Facebook user Joe shared that she suddenly received messages informing her that transactions she did not make were charged to her KrisFlyer credit card. Two separate transactions were made within five minutes.

This set alarm bells ringing as Joe knew with certainty that she did not make these transactions.

The transactions were made to a company that sold game accounts, and Joe said she was not a gamer. She was actually asleep when the transactions were made, and was awoken by the notifications from the messages.

She then realised that she had received a notification that her KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card was added to a mobile device with a verified one-time password (OTP) on 7th December 2022.

Unfortunately, she missed out on these notifications as she was at work.

Upon noting the fraudulent transactions made on her card, Joe immediately blocked her KrisFlyer UOB Credit Card through the UOB TMRW app and called the UOB call centre to file a scam case.

She was told that the investigations would be done.

Joe shared in her post that the UOB call centre asked her to lodge a police report as the transaction was legitimate, and referred her to their fraud support team.

All UOB bank accounts & cards blocked without prior notice

Following the launch of the investigation, Joe said she called the UOB call centre multiple times to ask for updates.

However, in a call in mid-Jan 2023, she was told that all her bank accounts and cards had to be blocked to prevent her from facing further fraudulent transactions since her card was already compromised. Soon after, her internet banking use was also blocked.

This was highly distressing for Joe, especially since the locked UOB account was her only bank account. She was also set to travel to Bangkok in two days and needed access to the money.

She was told the investigation could take between 90 days and a year, so she was faced with great inconveniences. She had to deal with late payments as well as not being able to access her savings.

Joe told MS News that before writing her post, she had spent two hours calling the UOB call centre to unfreeze her account so she could withdraw all her money from a physical branch instead.

However, she was allegedly “redirected too many times and asked to wait for a return call on the very day.”

Her waiting came to nought as she did not hear back that day.

Allegedly threatened for card payment charges

On top of the distress she was already facing, another blow came when the UOB call centre allegedly called in February to ask her to pay for the transactions charged on her card. The bank would charge her late fees and interest if she did not pay up.

However, Joe was unable to pay as her only account was blocked. Additionally, she was unwilling to pay the sum as the costs were chalked up to the fraudulent expenditure, which she did not benefit from.

Joe claimed that the UOB call centre later called to offer her a 40% goodwill discount if she paid the fee. Alternatively, she could file for a dispute, but the goodwill discount would be forgone.

She was left frustrated as to why she was being “threatened” by UOB to make payment when the costs were not incurred by her, on top of the fact that her bank account was locked.

In response to follow-up queries by MS News, Joe shared that UOB has now agreed to release her accounts if she cancels them.

Although the police are unable to reveal any details about their investigation, it is clear that a generic email was used to make the purchase, so it is on the merchant to process a refund.

Do occasional checks on your credit cards

Joe’s experience serves as a painful reminder for credit card users to be more attentive to notifications received regarding transactions made on their cards.

Perhaps it would serve everyone well to do occasional checks on their transaction history to check for suspicious transactions.

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Featured image adapted from UOB on Facebook.