Forum: Having fewer credit cards can make it easier to detect fraud

I am shocked to read that credit cardholders have been unwittingly charged by legitimate firms due to fraud (

Singapore credit and debit cardholders report multiple unauthorised charges from ChatGPT, Apple,

June 12).

The unauthorised charges for ChatGPT subscriptions were reported by a number of credit and debit cardholders here. 

Recently, a friend was charged US$1 (S$1.34) for a transaction he did not make on a bank debit card which he had kept in his drawer since it was issued and never used. I do not understand how a debit card that had never been used could be used to make a transaction without the cardholder’s knowledge. 

I wonder if there had been a data breach in the card issuer’s system. Banks say that they deploy considerable resources to detect fraud, but it seems to me that this is still not enough to deter fraudsters. 

If cardholders do not have confidence in a card issuer’s ability to prevent fraudulent transactions, there will likely be lower demand for card services, which would affect the issuer’s card transaction volumes.

I understand that cardholders must do their part to scrutinise transactions on their card statements.

But it would be impractical to, as has been suggested, set up transaction alerts on banking apps for amounts as low as one cent. 

Perhaps cardholders should maintain fewer cards. This would make it easier and less time-consuming to regularly check on the card transactions that have been made. 

Foo Sing Kheng