Kazakhstani woman loses 1.7 mln tenge from Apple Pay-Linked Card

A resident of Kazakhstan has reported the theft of 1.7 mln tenge from a bank card linked to the Apple Pay service.

According to her, the funds were stolen in August 2024, and so far, the bank has refused to refund the money, El.kz reports.

The woman shared details of the incident on social media, stating that the family had been saving this money for the birth of their daughter. The funds were withdrawn via a tokenized card within Apple Pay.

According to the author of the post, the family received no SMS notifications regarding the transactions, no calls from the bank's security department, and no requests for additional confirmation. Upon discovering the missing funds, they contacted both the bank and law enforcement agencies.

The bank conducted an internal investigation but ultimately denied the refund request. The author claims the bank justified its refusal by stating that approximately one month before the disputed transactions, the card had been added to Apple Pay and confirmed via an SMS code.

The woman has raised several questions for the financial institution. Specifically, she is asking how the bank determined that the transactions were made by the cardholder, why the security system failed to flag a series of large foreign transactions, and why no additional identity verification was required.

Furthermore, she noted that the bank's official response lacked details regarding the device used, IP addresses, geolocation, or other technical data that could confirm who actually performed the operations.

The family is currently considering further appeals through regulatory authorities. Additionally, the author has reached out to social media users, asking those who have experienced similar unauthorized withdrawals via Apple Pay or tokenized bank cards to share their experiences.