An Uber user in Beijing complained that her personal information had been accessed nine times by a user in London, the Beijing Morning Post reported on Thursday.

The woman, identified only as Ms. Lou, said she hadn't realized anything unusual about the taxi calling app until Wednesday morning, when she was woken by a call from a taxi driver in London, along with a short message saying the taxi she had called was on the way to her home.

"It was 2:00 a.m. and impossible that I'd be calling a taxi so early," she said.

Lou checked her Uber app immediately and was stunned by what she found. "There were a total of nine orders from London on my bill, and three of them had been completed, costing 53.16 pounds (about 508.06 yuan) altogether."

Lou contacted Uber and later received a reply saying that her password had probably been stolen and the money would be returned to her account as soon as the password was reset.

Lou said she currently lives in Beijing and her bank credit card was linked to the Alipay service, which can automatically calculate expenses and deductions.

"I immediately deleted the Alipay link to my Chinese credit card, but couldn't do anything about the credit card used overseas," she said.

"Even though I use the English version of the software, I have already changed my personal information, including my home address to be accessible through the China service only."

In its email contact with Lou, Uber stated a series of possibilities in which a user's account could be accessed without authorization, but the company added that no loophole had been found in the system so far.

"They simply returned the money to my account, but didn't determine whether my information had been stolen by a third party, which doesn't suggest to me that the company is determined to investigate the case thoroughly," Lou said.

The newspaper said previous surveys showed complaints that Uber's customer service was not readily available. It said that at the time of writing, no further progress had been made in resolving Lou's case.

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