Warning issued after customers spot suspicious 'Uber transactions'

Uber has issued a warning to customers to safeguard their personal information after numerous people around Australia complained on social media about credit card charges purporting to be by the ride-sharing company.

A Wodonga woman, who did not wish to be identified, contacted Uber after she noticed two charges on her credit card on Saturday that she said were billed without authorisation.

Labelling the charges a "scam or hack", she told Yahoo7 the first transaction for a small amount of 35 cents was charged Saturday night and after that $49.82 was debited.

The two debits also appeared on her husbands Uber app, the woman said.

"We have to cancel our credit card now as someone obviously has our details."

"We called our bank and put a block on international transactions as my husband was traveling from Wodonga to Melbourne today for football and needed access to funds so couldn’t immediately cancel the card."

Her bank assured her they would reverse the charge to her account, and she has requested Uber to delete their account as the couple only used it twice last year while away in Sydney.

Uber told her that they were not responsible for the charges.

"Uber could see [the transaction] was put to a credit card that they say wasn’t linked to the account - we had PayPal details on there though, and that is linked to our credit card."

The woman noted that a friend who had never even used Uber before also told her she fell victim to a similar scam about a month ago.

Another user claimed unauthorised debits were also made from her account this week, posting to the Uber Facebook page on Friday that "multiple transactions have happened from my account by Uber for last two days."

Earlier this month, another woman reported a similar issue, but said she never even booked a ride.

"My Uber account has been hacked," she reported to the ride share Facebook page.

"Someone in USA is using it... I opened an account a few years ago but never used it. What can I do?"

Other reports of similar bank account activity have also been reported to the ride share app's social media account.

Uber fell victim to a massive 2016 breach that exposed the data of some 57 million users of the ride-sharing service.

Uber told Yahoo7 it was an "unfortunate reality" that the ride share provider could have been a target of phishing attacks aimed at stealing users' personal information, such as passwords.

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Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details and money, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication, where online accounts including emails and banking services, are vulnerable.

"There are multiple reasons why unauthorised activity may occur - including whether the user is maintaining good habits in safeguarding personal information security, whether the device has been compromised, or even issues with the financial institution and its products," and Uber spokesperson told Yahoo7.

"Fraudsters may also try to use credit card numbers stolen from other services to request Uber trips."

Uber encouraged users to maintain unique passwords and report any issues to its 24/7 customer help team who will investigate individual cases as needed.

More tips about online security and how to protect your Uber account are available on the ride share website.