When I visited Dubai in early February, I fell victim to credit card fraud, as thousands of dollars were charged to my OCBC Bank credit card without my knowledge.

The most upsetting part of this incident is not losing my money, but how the bank handled the case.

Normally, I would receive an SMS message when such transactions happen, but I did not receive anything in this case. The bank said that the messages were sent, and promised to send me proof.

It also said that since my credit card was not stolen, I was fully responsible for all the charges, even though I had no idea what these charges were for.

It took me several calls and e-mail messages before I was told that I had to fill up a dispute declaration form to get a copy of the credit card slip.

I did so and sent it to OCBC on Feb 29. On April 13, the bank confirmed that it had a copy of the credit card slip and that it would be mailed to me within five working days.

When I asked the customer service agent if she could compare the signature on the slip with my signature in the bank's records, she said she could not because "this is done by another department".

By May 13, I had still not heard anything from the bank and received no copy of the credit card slip, no information on what the unauthorised charges were, nor any proof that the bank had sent SMS messages warning me about the transaction.

In the past three months, I have sent the bank some 15 e-mail messages and made numerous calls to try and find out what really happened, but I have been met with only standard responses that are of no help.

The customer service agent also tends to use industry jargon and words that are not easily understood.

Why is OCBC so unhelpful in finding out what happened and how it happened?

Jere Kristian Tala