Local TikToker Says She Lost $205 To 'Apple' Scam On POSB Account In A Span Of 8 Days

Local TikToker Daisy (@daizamazze) posted a TikTok on May 29 warning others about how she fell victim to a recent bank scam.

“This is a PSA for DBS or POSB cardholders. Please go and check your transaction history immediately. I was checking it the other day and I noticed something a bit sus,” said Daisy at the start of her video.

According to Daisy, the transaction history of her account reflected deductions made by tech company Apple “every single day”. The deductions began at S$1, and increased by a small amount each day.

She lost a total of $205 over the span of eight days, before she noticed the unusual activity.

“I tracked every single transaction [and there were] 28 transactions made from my card,” said Daisy, who was puzzled by deductions that were clearly not a result of her own purchases.

She also checked her iCloud and Apple settings, and was certain that the none of the deductions “aligned” with any of her subscriptions.

She then showed a screenshot of her transaction history, which displayed very authentic-looking debit card transactions made by ‘Apple.com’, ranging from S$1 to S$6. 

“They started taking money out of my account from May 19th and basically almost every day till May 27th. And I had no idea. Because what the f***, you don’t notice these little tiny transactions, you don’t see the money depleting from your account right?” she explained.

Thankfully, Daisy was able to receive assistance from DBS, and had her card immediately blocked. She took the details of her card “off everything”, and will soon receive a new card from her bank.

“But guys please check your accounts please. I shared this on my Instagram and people have replied [saying that] the same thing happened to [them], but [the transactions were made under] ‘Facebook’. You need to check okay, write it down, do the math, call POSB, tell them what is up [and] you’ll get your money back. Hopefully,” sighed Daisy.

Turns out, there have been a number of people have fallen victim to the same scam.

“My mum works in DBS… and even she got [scammed],” read one comment.

Others also shared their experiences with similar scams, saying that they had suspicious deductions made under their credit cards and PayPal accounts, under the guise of Apple, Facebook and Amazon ‘merchants’.

Luckily, in her reply to one of the comments, Daisy revealed that she was going to get her money back in five working days.

When 8days.sg spoke to a POSB card holder who was also a recent victim of the scam, she told us with a sigh: “I had a S$20 pending deduction made by Apple on my POSB account, and I'm not even an Apple user. I have an Android phone! Luckily I'm someone who checks my bank transaction every day! I lodged a report with the bank and received a new card, and was told to wait 10 working days after the transaction has been processed to get my money back.”

It appears that there is still no known way to prevent our bank accounts from being compromised in such scams, so it seems like the next best thing we can do for now would be to set notification alerts for our transactions, and check our account balance regularly.

Photos: Daisy/ TikTok