Apparently, in order to unsubscribe from the PAssion Card email list, you will need to turn in some sensitive information first.

That's what one Singaporean Goh Wei Zhong found out when he tried to unsubscribe from the list.

Replacement

The 27-year-old graduate student signed up for a POSB GO! card previously, but in December 2016, he misplaced it and needed a new one.

At the bank, he was informed that he could no longer sign up for a new GO! card, as it was soon going to be replaced by the PAssion POSB Debit card.

DBS announced that:

"Effective 21 April 2017, the POSB GO!, POSB Active, POSB Multitude and DBS MoneySmart Debit Cards will be discontinued and a PAssion POSB Debit Card will be issued at renewal or replacement of these cards."

So he got a PAssion Card instead.

You've got mail

All was well until February 2018, when Goh began receiving newsletters by email, advertising various offers and deals.

He didn't want them, so he tried to unsubscribe by clicking the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the email.

However, all it did was to bring him to this webpage, where unsubscribing was not an option.

Next, Goh replied to the newsletter email itself, saying that he wanted to unsubscribe from the mailing list.

He expected a quick resolution, but received an email reply instead.

You'll notice that there are two links for someone who doesn't want to receive the email newsletter.

Clicking both links ultimately redirects you to this webpage -- the home page of OnePA.sg.

Unfortunately, that page also doesn't offer a clear way for someone to unsubscribe from the newsletter.

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Need more information

Since this went nowhere, Goh then sent another email to PAssion Card's customer service, making the same request.

He received an email which contained the following request instead:

Goh feels that it's unnecessary for a commercial organisation to ask for his personal details for a simple task of unsubscribing from a newsletter.

When the PAssion Card Customer Service hotline was contacted on Feb. 15, a representative explained that PA needed the personal info to verify that the cardholder is the same person who sent the unsubscribe request by email.

But Goh feels that this reason makes little sense.

He reasoned it's unlikely that someone with malicious intent will make it a top priority, after hacking into an email account, to start unsubscribing a victim from newsletters.

NRIC data is too sensitive

In November 2017, it was reported that consumers in Singapore can look forward to refusing to hand over their NRIC details.

This is because the NRIC number is a permanent and irreplaceable identifier.

It can be used to unlock vast amounts of personal information, including income details, residential address and medical status.

In the future, consumers can have the right to refuse to hand over their NRIC details or card.

Service providers will have to use alternative methods such as mobile phone numbers, vehicle numbers or e-mail addresses to identify consumers.

In the meantime, if you happen to hold a PAssion POSB Debit Card, be rest assured that you will be receiving newsletters from them for a long time to come.

Top image via email and POSB