Sharifah discovered unauthorised activity on her Lazada account, and her e-wallet account had been used to purchase play coins from Razor Gold. A total of nine transactions were made from her e-wallet account, which led to a deduction of funds from her account that she claimed was without her knowledge or consent.

Sharifah contended that the merchant’s representative had informed her that her mobile device location had been changed to Sandakan, Sabah, without her knowledge or authorisation.

FINDINGS

The disputed transactions totalling RM606 were performed on Sharifah’s e-wallet account, which requires a 6-digit PIN for successful login. According to the e-money issuer’s records, the transactions were carried out using Sharifah’s own Samsung Galaxy Note 10, which has been bound since 14 January 2021, with no evidence of a new device login prior to the transactions.

In addition to this, the disputed transactions were reloaded into her e-wallet account from her credit card via the auto-debit feature, which required an initial OTP verification. This feature allowed subsequent reloads using her linked “favourite card” without requiring further OTPs, in line with the merchant’s standard billing process.

OUTCOME

The case manager upheld the e-money issuer’s decision. Dissatisfied with the recommendation, Sharifah referred the matter to adjudication for review. The Ombudsman agreed with the case manager based on the abovementioned findings and emphasised that the account holder is responsible for safeguarding their e-wallet account, including the account details and the device used to access it.