Woman loses $120 from unauthorised charges on Foodpanda; urges others to check their bank statements

Are you the kind who tend to overlook those small transactions in your bank statements?

If you do, maybe it's time to start scrutinising your bank statements, like this Foodpanda customer. 

On April 4, Sherrene Tan took to Facebook to share that she discovered that multiple erroneous transactions had been made via the food delivery platform using her bank details. 

"I've filed [a] police report against Foodpanda for unauthorised charges and dishonest use of my bank card today," posted this Foodpanda customer.

She recounted that she had received a few One-Time Password (OTP) messages for Foodpanda orders which weren't hers. To clarify, she contacted her bank and she said that she was told to "just ignore the OTP SMS" as those transactions can't go through without it. 

She claimed that the bank added that sometimes, other Foodpanda users tend to key in a wrong phone number by mistake, resulting in an OTP message sent to them. 

However, on a separate date, she said the bank contacted her to verify if multiple transactions had been made by her on the Foodpanda platform and she denied making those transactions. 

"I told the caller not to authorise any transaction and I will call bank card centre to cancel/stop my card. Of course I didn't provide any personal info to the caller [sic]," she posted. 

She said that she immediately called the bank card centre to cancel her card and that was when she found out that five unauthorised bank transactions had been made using her details since January 2022. 

According to Tan, these added up to about $120, and each transaction ranged between $28 to $29. 

She also said that the amount in the OTP messages she previously received did not match up with the transaction amounts. The timings were different as well and were a few hours or days apart. 

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Tan was then instructed to file a police report, which she said she did on April 4. 

She ended her Facebook post saying she wanted to share her experience to encourage others to do regular bank reconciliation for their private accounts. 

"Most of us may overlooked some small payments (a few dollars up to $30 per transaction) in our bank statements as not many would do bank reconciliation on each and every payment," wrote Tan. 

She urged readers to check their bank accounts if they receive any OTP messages that aren't theirs. 

When contacted by AsiaOne, Foodpanda said they are "aware of the situation" and will 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."

In March, at least 72 victims fell victim to a phishing scam on Carousell, with the total loss adding up to more than $109,000. 

melissateo@asiaone.com 

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