73-year-old woman discards new SIM card, receives $700 bill

In March 2024, Ms Zheng's 73-year-old mother signed up for a home broadband service with M1 at its store at Causeway Point in Woodlands.

As part of the package, she received a free SIM card with 500MB worth of data.

"My mother didn't know how to operate these devices and already had a SIM card so she didn't need the card," Ms Zheng told Shin Min Daily News.

"She told the clerk she didn't need the card and he suggested she just throw it away."

Her mother threw the SIM card into the dustbin at the void deck of her block.

In her January bill this year, Ms Zheng's mother received a bill showing that the discarded SIM card had used up 68GB worth of data, incurring a bill of $695.

"I suspected that my mother's lost card was picked up and used by someone else," said Ms Zheng.

And because she was still trying to work out a solution to M1, payment for the January bill was delayed and the service was disconnected.

An M1 spokesperson said the standard procedure for terminating a SIM card is through the customer service hotline before discarding it.

"The SIM card given to Ms Zheng's mother had a lot of data usage, such as playing videos, browsing multiple social media, voice calls and text messages," said the spokesperson.

"When Ms Zheng's mother first contacted us at the end of January, we immediately terminated the service."

M1 waived $600 from the bill.