An Australian tourist has recently reported that he was charged nearly AUD39,429 (nearly 30,000) for a dinner via payment card without his acknowledge in a Ho Chi Minh City restaurant two months ago.

On August 11, Caracciolo David John had dinner at Nightfall restaurant in District 1’s Thai Van Lung Street.

He paid the meal with his payment cards and after got back to his home country, the man realized he was charged with the above amount.

Le Kim Yen, his authorized representative on Saturday confirmed with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the restaurant staff deliberately swiped both of his cards multiple times.

At the time, they also asked him several times for the cards’ passwords, saying there were technical issues.

They did not provide John with any payment bill or money transfer receipt, Yen added.

“He believed and did not check his account until getting back to Australian and received an account statement from his bank,” Yen said. “He found that Nightfall swiped his cards 8 times and took the money”.

The Australian man’s authorized person confirmed again that he did not sign any bill at the time the payment was conducted at Nightfall.

An account statement from Caracciolo David John’s bank shows the money was transferred to the restaurant. Photo: Tuoi Tre

According to lawyer Truong Xuan Tam who represents Caracciolo David John in Vietnam, Nightfall restaurant must be responsible once the money was transferred to their account.

“We are currently not able to contact to the owner as the restaurant was moved to another location,” the lawyer said. “However, its registered business address is still valid.”