Thief steals S'pore woman's credit card from unlocked bag on plane, spent S$10,000 in 1 hour once plane landed

[Yuletide]

Thief steals S'pore woman's credit card from unlocked bag on plane, spent S$10,000 in 1 hour once plane landed​

The passenger did not keep the card with her and did not lock her bag.



Khine Zin Htet

December 14, 2025, 11:20 AM​

A thief who stole a credit card from a Singapore passenger’s unlocked backpack in the overhead compartment of an aircraft spent S$10,000 on it as soon as the plane landed.

The passenger only found her card missing an hour later, but by then it was too late.

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She had kept her wallet in her unlocked backpack and later placed it in the plane’s overhead compartment, reported The Straits Times.

Discovered the loss too late​

According to ST, the traveller remembered sleeping during the flight and leaving her seat a few times to use the restroom, but did not know when the thief took her card.

After landing, she was clearing immigration and travelling to her hotel and did not see the 20 notifications on her mobile phone from her credit card transactions.

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She discovered the theft only after reaching her hotel, when she attempted to use the credit card to pay for her cab fare.

The bank cancelled the card after she contacted it, but it was unable to reverse the 20 transactions because they were made using the physical card.

In some cases, banks can help customers recover disputed online purchases through a “chargeback” process, but this does not apply to transactions made with a physical card.

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The only way to prevent such purchases is to cancel the card as soon as fraudulent activity is detected.

Took case to Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre​

The traveller decided to take her case to the Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre (FIDReC) as she was not happy with the bank’s decision to make her pay for the fraudulent charges.

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FIDReC is an independent and impartial alternative dispute resolution institution that assists in the resolution of disputes between consumers and financial institutions through mediation and adjudication.

During mediation, the bank’s representative noted that the traveller was careless in safekeeping the card as she didn't keep the card on her and also did not lock her bag.

After the passenger admitted she should have been more careful and asked for compassion, the bank agreed to share 20 per cent of her loss.

 

[glockman]

Sinkies live in a cocoon, oblivious to the dangers of the outside world. Serves her right!

 

[Yuletide]

Sinkies live in a cocoon, oblivious to the dangers of the outside world. Serves her right!

Too conditioned in the pampered Sinkie environment liao.

 

[Eisenhut]

Moi going to steal many credit card and buy everything at DFS shop

 

[syed putra]

Credit card, passport, id's, phones should be in your pocket all the time

 

[Dreamliner787]

Don't want to tell us which airline she was travelling?

 

[Yuletide]

Don't want to tell us which airline she was travelling?

Most likely Scoot. Scoot does have many funny passengers...

 

[eatshitndie]

tiongs will steal cash and credit cards while sinkies will steal soiled panties.

 

[PatriotMissile2025]

Why put small things like credit cards in luggage? Stupid. Just carry a sling bag and put your patek and gold cards in it.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

So thief wasn’t caught? Not that hard with all the cctvs around

 

[myfoot123]

Sinkies live in a cocoon, oblivious to the dangers of the outside world. Serves her right!

Sinkies love to collect credit cards, the more the merrier and you have to keep watch on every single one to ensure none is missing.

 

[myfoot123]

Why put small things like credit cards in luggage? Stupid. Just carry a sling bag and put your patek and gold cards in it.

Bra is also a safe place to hide your credit card.