SINGAPORE – When Mr Mahesh Pulandaran visited Bali in May, he did what any tourist would do – make payments with his credit card.

But as the Singaporean financial consultant reviewed his transactions, he was alarmed to see that more than $7,000 had been paid to a local telecommunications store almost 80km away from where he stayed.

His DBS credit card was in his possession during the six days he spent on the Indonesian island, so he suspected that it had been cloned. However, he has no inkling of how it might have happened.

“I arrived in Bali on May 4 and spent my whole time in Seminyak, which is in the south of the island. But somehow my credit card had been used to make a purchase at a store all the way up north the next day,” the 50-year-old told The Straits Times.

He noticed the suspicious payment only on May 8 while attempting to transfer money to a friend in Singapore through PayNow.

His immediate instinct was to alert the friend, who then called DBS Bank on his behalf. The bank subsequently contacted Mr Mahesh and froze the card later in the day.

Mr Mahesh added: “I also filed a report with the local police there that very day. They told me that part of Bali wasn’t exactly a tourist spot.”

The payment had been made to a store named Ei-Go Cell, located in the Karangasem region of Bali. It does not have a website, and its Facebook page has very few likes.

After Mr Mahesh returned to Singapore on May 9, he disputed the charge and filed a police report here.

A representative from the bank contacted him on May 21 via e-mail, notifying him that he would be reimbursed the $7,126.52 in temporary credit.

No further action was required on his part, said the bank.

However, if he received a refund from the store, or if the transaction was found to be legitimate, the credit would be reversed.

But as weeks passed, he still did not receive anything.

In an e-mail dated June 16 and seen by ST, a DBS Bank representative told him the disputed charge was a card-present transaction, or one made in person, and thus the bank had no recourse.

Mr Mahesh said: “Why on earth would anyone go all the way to the north of Bali to buy $7,000 worth of telco products? The Balinese police themselves checked and said it didn’t sound logical to them.

“I was in Seminyak the whole time, but somehow it’s on me to prove that I didn’t make the purchase, just to get my money back.”

A DBS Bank spokesman disputed Mr Mahesh’s claim that his card could have been cloned.

He pointed out that the card is an EMV (Europay-MasterCard-Visa) chip card – such cards store data that uniquely identify the card and its holder, which makes it nearly impossible for them to be tampered with.

“Our records show that the disputed transaction was made with the unique chip card held by the customer,” said the spokesman in response to ST’s queries.

He added that since EMV chip cards were introduced in 2011, the bank has not found any known cases of cloned chip cards in its records.

“While investigations are ongoing, we are in contact with the customer to extend our assistance,” he said.