SINGAPORE: Several Uber users in Singapore have complained this month of being charged for rides they never took, often in faraway places.
The victims, who held cards from different banks, were charged in foreign currencies which included the US dollar, Euro and British pound.
Daphne Maia Loo, a personal trainer, said she noticed something was amiss when she was withdrawing cash from an ATM and realised that her bank balance did not seem quite right.
In a Facebook post on Monday (Nov 20), she posted a screenshot of her bank account showing several transactions charged by Uber, with one coming up to £154 (S$276).
Ms Loo told Channel NewsAsia that she has noted 15 unauthorised transactions on her OCBC debit card so far, but there are still pending transactions which have not been reflected in her bank statement.
When she contacted Uber, the company said they would reverse all the charges, but only after Ms Daphne had submitted a fraud claim for every unauthorised transaction with her bank.
“I’m pretty sure I will get back my money (most of it anyway),” she told Channel NewsAsia via Facebook Messenger. However, due to the forex conversions, Ms Daphne said she assumed she would not get refunded for a “few dollars”, which she would let slide.
“All the bookings for Uber charged on my card were not made from my Uber app,” she said, explaining why she did not receive any billing notifications from Uber via the app or email.
“My card was used on someone else’s Uber app – someone based in UK – as the charges were in GBP.”
Ms Loo, who said she would not be using Uber anymore, was informed by the company that they have blocked the account which used her card details.
Another user who preferred to remain anonymous said she had a huge shock when she checked her bank account transactions on Sunday.
One Facebook user said she lost more than S$1,300 within 5 days due to unauthorised transactions.
There were more than 30 unauthorised transactions made from Nov 13, adding up to S$1,300. She called DBS Bank immediately to cancel her card.
The 25-year-old told Channel NewsAsia that Uber has called her to say that they were reviewing the case and will refund her. While she said she would still use Uber’s services, she will pay by cash instead.
A media coordinator, who also wished to remain anonymous, told Channel NewsAsia that three unauthorised transactions totalling about S$92 were made using her Citibank credit card in Euros and Canadian dollars last Friday (Nov 17).
She was informed of the suspicious transactions by the bank, which would be issuing her a new card, she said.
A few other users also said they were victims of similar scams on social media. Facebook user Richard Toh posted on Nov 3 that about 75 transactions on both Uber and Nintendo Europe, which came up to more than S$4,000, were made on his DBS credit card over two weeks.
Another Facebook user Sheela Narayanan shared on Nov 14 that her credit card was used to pay for Uber rides in Europe.
This is not the first time such reports have been made against the company. In Singapore, there were reports of such fraud earlier this year, and last year, The Guardian newspaper reported that Londoners received shocking bills for such “phantom rides” in Mexico and New York.
Channel NewsAsia has contacted Uber for its response.
