Petar Ceklic has been trying to recover $6,500 stolen from his ANZ credit card for weeks. (Source: Supplied/Getty)
An ANZ customer is fighting to recover thousands of dollars stolen from his credit card after he discovered a fraudster had been charging fake Uber rides to his card for months. The number of Aussies falling victim to card fraud has doubled over the past decade, and customers are calling on the banks to “do better”.
Petar Ceklic has been a loyal customer of ANZ for more than 20 years and has multiple products with the bank, including his mortgage, transaction accounts and a credit card that he shares with his wife. The Perth UI/UX designer was recently checking his credit card balance when he realised he had been charged for multiple Uber trips in Sydney that his family didn’t make.
“It went ballistic last month and I was sometimes getting 50 to 60 in a day,” Ceklic told Yahoo Finance.
“That’s when I thought, I’m not a fraud management person, but I know for a fact that a single person shouldn’t be able to do 50 Uber rides in a day and not be noticed.”
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After doing some digging, Ceklic discovered hundreds of fraudulent transactions stretching back to January last year. In total, he found nearly $6,500 worth of unauthorised transactions.
When Ceklic contacted ANZ about the charges, he was told to get in touch with the merchant Uber.
But since the charges were not made to Ceklic’s Uber account, Uber wasn’t able to help him. They did, however, identify who had been using his card and cancelled their account.
When ANZ finally raised a dispute, Ceklic was advised it could take 35 business days to resolve the issue.
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Ceklic discovered hundreds of fake Uber trips had been charged to his credit card, stretching back to January last year. (Source: TikTok/@petar_design)
After Ceklic posted about the ordeal on social media, ANZ advised they had “escalated” the issue and its customer resolution team would be in touch. But it’s been weeks of radio silence since then.
He told Yahoo Finance it has been a “frustrating” and “disappointing” process.
“ANZ has so far refunded $1,700 worth of transactions. They’ve disputed five, which is $200 worth. But there is over $4,500 remaining,” he said.
“I’m no clearer. Are they gonna not refund that? Are they just leaving me in the lurch? Not to mention the interest.”
ANZ is currently investigating the matter and told Yahoo Finance it could not comment on individual customers.
“This case is currently being considered by the independent financial complaints body, AFCA,” an ANZ spokesperson said.
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“ANZ takes the risk of fraud seriously, with a range of policies, controls and technologies in place to help protect our customers and the bank.
“As scammers continue to adjust their methodologies, we continually review and strengthen our controls in response.”
Card fraud is a growing issue, with the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing one in 10 Aussies experiencing it in the 2024-25 financial year.
The number of Aussies who have encountered card fraud has doubled over the past decade, rising from 1.1 million in 2014-15 to 2.3 million in 2024-25.
Total losses from card fraud were estimated at $2.2 billion nationally in the last 12 months. Around 72 per cent of card fraud victims were fully reimbursed by their card or card issuer. But the net loss to all victims after reimbursements was estimated to be $350 million.
ANZ has encouraged anyone who identifies suspicious payments to contact their bank immediately.
Ceklic has called on ANZ to “do better” and implement security measures so customers are alerted to any suspicious activity on their accounts, such as through a text message.
“Before it gets down the line of a whole year of me getting taken advantage of, I think that’s a really simple measure,” he said.
ANZ notably has Falcon technology, which it says identifies unusual transactions on debit and credit cards. It says it sends customers texts in real-time to verify whether a transaction is genuine, but for some reason the Uber charges were not flagged in Ceklic’s case.
When fraud does happen, Ceklic has called on ANZ to “step up” and improve their dispute processes so customers can easily speak to a real person and have disputes resolved quicker than 35 business days.
It’s not unusual for banks to give long timeframes for resolving disputes, with Commonwealth Bank disputes taking up to 21 calendar days, Westpac up to 45 days, and NAB up to 120 days to resolve.
Ceklic said he was now considering changing banks once the issue was resolved.
“It’s quite disappointing because I’m not a dodgy person who’s created an ANZ account six months ago and is trying to take them for a ride. I’m just trying to get my money back,” he said.
Ceklic has lodged complaints with ANZ, AFCA and WA ScamNet.
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