Woman evades $26 fare, Tada driver then finds $595 transferred out of his PayLah Wallet the next day
He believes he is the victim of a scam.
A private-hire vehicle driver (PHV) found out he lost $595 from his PayLah Wallet after losing $26 to a fare evader a day earlier.
In response to a Stomp query, the police confirmed that a report was lodged and said investigations are ongoing.
Stomper ST is the driver.
He recounted: “On Oct 24 at 12.15pm, I picked up a female passenger via the Tada app from Block 32 Marsiling Lane. It was a cash payment and a multiple-stop booking. Her first drop-off was at Block 118 Corporation Drive.
“Upon reaching her first destination, she told me she would settle the whole booking via PayLah as she needed to go up to fetch another person for a second drop-off at Ng Teng Fong Hospital.
“As usual, I gave her my mobile number. She told me that she had transferred the amount and asked me to check my phone for a link she had supposedly sent to me. When I checked my phone, I had not received the link.
“What happened instead was that my PayLah app popped up automatically on my phone without me clicking on the app. I found this a bit strange, but at the same time, I assumed that it might have been the bank’s new feature of checking the transferred amount on PayLah.
“I input my password but found no new transferred funds. I mentioned this to the passenger and she said that she would go up and get me the cash. She left but did not return. I tried calling and texting her but received no response.
“I initially took it as a bad day of being cheated out of around $26. I called the Tada hotline, explained the issue and got them to cancel the booking.”
The Stomper did not know there was more bad news waiting for him.
“When I checked my bank account the following day, I realised my week’s earnings were wiped out,” he said.
“It appeared that there were five transactions made from my PayLah Wallet overnight to a random PayLah account that I did not recognise.”
The first transaction was for $500 at 4.29am. Another four transactions for $30, $50, $10 and $5 took place in the next three minutes.
“I immediately called the bank to notify them. They cancelled my cards and froze my account. I had also made a police report that same day,” said the Stomper
He lost a total of $595 through those unauthorised PayLah transactions.
The Stomper now wants to warn his fellow PHV drivers: “It looks like there is a loophole in the system when receiving transactions from PayLah or even PayNow that can be exploited by hackers.
“My advice to everyone and especially all PHV drivers is to beware of such scams when making transactions through these apps.”
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