Fraudulent withdrawals
I would like Gulf News to kindly intercede on my behalf for the questionable debit transaction that I supposedly made with United Arab Bank (UAB). I found out about this in the later part of June, when I asked for a bank statement. I found transactions I was not aware of. I personally spoke with their Deira branch manager and I was made to sign a dispute letter. After several emails and phone calls and still no reply on his part, I visited the branch for the second time, and again I was told that he did not get a response yet about the matter.
I wanted to give up, but when I read about the same grievances in Gulf News about bank issues, I decided to write in. A total of Dh14,000 is big enough not to ignore.
I was told since I frequently visit Oman (because my husband works there), and the withdrawals are coming from the National Bank of Oman (NBO), that maybe at some point, I used my card to withdraw. But I told the agent the cash withdrawal amount and the transaction fee of Dh2 would have appeared if it was so, as shown in my previous cash withdrawals. As far as I know, I cannot make cash withdrawals over Dh5,000 a day. There was no withdrawal charge in every transaction. It only shows up as ‘NBO’ cash withdrawals, which the manager could not explain as well.
The transactions were made on May 19, June 1, June 3 and June 7. I have no idea what these transactions are at all!
Please help me understand and clear this issue with my bank. Gulf News is my only hope.
From Ms Ava Elena Aviso-Eblasin
Dubai
The management of United Arab Bank responds:
United Arab Bank is committed to serving our customers in the most efficient and fair manner possible. To clarify the details of this case, the customer visited the branch and submitted the ATM dispute form for unauthorised debits to her account in June 2014. Upon receiving the form, the case was put under investigation, as per the UAB’s dispute management cycle. Following the investigation, the dispute was declined, as transactions had been made on a chip and pin card. Therefore, the investigation was closed at that point in time.
On receiving a further complaint from the customer, the case has been reopened and a re-investigation has been initiated. UAB would like to reiterate that as these transactions were made outside the UAE, the investigation requires more time to coordinate with the other bank and Visa, as well as to obtain the required documentation and reports for review and investigation. Therefore, we request two to three weeks to complete our re-investigation of this case. The customer will be notified accordingly.
We would like to thank Gulf News for its continuous support in offering us the opportunity to further assist our valued customers.
Ms Aviso-Eblasin responds:
So far, UAB has not gotten in touch with me, regarding the re-investigation of my case. I just want to reiterate to them — how would I withdraw such an amount every other day, keeping in mind that I am using it abroad, and I am aware that withdrawals outside the country are costly? I would have withdrawn the amount at one time only and not as stated on the bank statement. Thank you Gulf News, for interceding on my behalf.
The management of United Arab Bank responds:
At United Arab Bank, we are committed to delivering excellent customer service and we value all customer feedback and are grateful to Ms Aviso-Eblasin for raising this matter. A small number of similar cases related to UAB cards have also recently come to our attention, all of which have since been resolved by the bank. While we would emphasise that the vast majority of our card customers have not been affected in any way, we are currently undertaking a thorough investigation to identify and fix any potential issues. We apologise to the customer for the misunderstanding and have reversed the charges in question.
Ms Aviso-Eblasin responds:
Thank you so much for extending assistance, Gulf News. I really appreciated all the efforts that were taken.
(Process initiation: May 6. Response from organisation: May 6. Reader confirmation: June 17.)
Editor’s note: Do you have similar issues that you would like to raise with us? You can write to us at readers@gulfnews.com.
