(I, Goutam Datta posting it on behalf of my Father Gopal Dutta) I am putting up my text below that i have already sent to SBI fraud control, MD&CEO Desk, RBI Ombudsmen - to narrate the case. I am having more than 30 years old banking relation with SBI, and these practically my last resort to take care of my livelihood in current retirement time. On September 28 th I got multiple SMS on my registered mobile stating consecutive 9 ATM withdrawal, each of ? 2500.00, and once ? 4000.00 from A/c *****84851 and within a few second got another series of SMS intimation of withdrawal of ? 9994.00 from A/c *****613378. I was confused as I have the debit cards with myself and I was at home – practically such ATM withdrawal were not done by myself. I have immediately checked my account status through the nearest ATM and understood that those withdrawal were actually real and someone somehow have cheated and have successfully withdrawn all together (2500 X 9=) ? 22,500.00 + ? 4,000.00 + ? 9,994.00, in total ? 36,494.00 from both the account. I am a retired person, and only source of income is my pension. My pension account is *****613378, and *****84851 is my regular saving account jointly owned with my wife Ms. Chandana Dutta. With this loss of my pension and my saving, I have lost my livelihood for myself and my family. I have immediately reported the loss to concerned bank manager and local police station (nevertheless I am told by bank officials - many incredible story of a structured gang working on cheating on regular basis any random SBI customer and Bank is absolutely unable to detect and protect customer money), and am still waiting for retrieval of my lost saving and detailed information on below mentioned details : 1. How SBI banking system has allowed withdrawal without debit card and its password physically made available to anyone ? 2. How someone could withdraw ? 9,994.00 from ATM/POS. I could never withdraw such a ramdom amount from any ATM (ATM normally only dispense multiple of 100s) 3. I have never enabled net banking, then how someone could get access to your banking system and got hold of my account and cheated me of my livelihood. 4. On September 29th another auto debit happened twice of ? 17.00 – on account of insufficient fund – while the accounts still have ? 8087.00 and ? 3165.00 in A/c *****84851 and A/c *****613378. 5. The account is only set for operational against ATM withdrawal and Cheque operation, but all these fraudulent credit were allowed on POS (I am not sure what is this mode of transaction and how this has been allowed) Please recover my saving and take required action to protect your customer’s hard earned saving … who have been trusting you with their saving for decades. Have only got templated answer from all ...hence now requesting for your assistance.
First answer received in 30 minutes.
Lawyers are available now to answer your questions.
1. What answer have you received from the SBI?
2. This is a case to be dealt with seriously by the Bank and police should nab the culprit,
3. Has the police acted in any way?
4. If not, you can file a Writ Petition before the High Court against police inaction and pray for relief.
The RBI Circulars makes it mandatory to compensate the defrauded the customers whenever any fraud is committed using the banking platform.
So nothing to worry. Send a demand justice notice to bank asking for making good your loss. If the bank refuses to so file a writ petition in high court.
I have recently succeeded in getting back lakhs of money back which my client was cheated.
Such frauds are not uncommon now but it is baffling that the amount could be withdrawn without the ATM card and its password in the physical custody of the person at the ATM. Be that as it may, bank is the trustee of the money lying in the account of its customers, which it is bound to protect against unauthorized withdrawal. You have made police complaints and also written to the higher ups of the banks. Now file a case in the consumer forum to direct the bank to refund your money with compensation.
1) Banking Codes and Standard Board of India (BCSBI) unit has issued "Code of Bank's Commitment" where in customers of such fraud will only be liable to the extent of Rs10,000 only and the bank has to make good the rest of the amount
2) ask for bank to submit report from its Fraud Investigation Unit, mandated by RBI guideline
3) ATM centres are supposed to be either guarded well or (kept) under good CCTV coverage. Their omissions fall within the ambit of Section 43 A of the IT Act
4) lodge complaint with principal secretary of the state information technology (IT) department, who is the adjudicating officer under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and seek compensation from bank
1. How SBI banking system has allowed withdrawal without debit card and its password physically made available to anyone ?
The loop holes in the system allowed the fraudster to play this game.
2. How someone could withdraw ? 9,994.00 from ATM/POS. I could never withdraw such a ramdom amount from any ATM (ATM normally only dispense multiple of 100s)
Yes this question raises eyebrows.
4. On September 29th another auto debit happened twice of ? 17.00 – on account of insufficient fund – while the accounts still have ? 8087.00 and ? 3165.00 in A/c *****84851 and A/c *****613378.
This indicates that there is a mal-function of the system to your particular account which might have been corrupted.
5. The account is only set for operational against ATM withdrawal and Cheque operation, but all these fraudulent credit were allowed on POS (I am not sure what is this mode of transaction and how this has been allowed)
It may be due to system corruption which the bank has to clarify and make necessary corrections to it.
All your above questions needed to be answered by the bank. You may first issue a legal notice demanding an explanation as well as refund of the amount illegally swiped from your account and after that you may approach a consumer forum
I m putting up the complete email exchange on this matter with RBI, SBI ... i am terribly unsatisfied in this case as we could not recover our hard earned money. I would love to accept a suggestion backed up by real proceeding to really recover the amount ... the expense in this case should also be capped to a max upper limit. Please advice. thanks to chairman Dear Madam, This is great injustice, this is terrible for such a huge brand like State Bank of India. One cant believe it. Sep 28th one pensioner lost his pension and saving due to some unexplained reasons from his accounts in SBI bank. Its immediately reported to Bank manager and local police station. November 1st, I (son of the person lost the money) have wrote to SBI higher authority and RBI authority, which subsequently forwarded to SBI authority and we got templated reply stating SBI knows that its the customer's fault. I explained the case and requested certain system log and explained SBI that its NOT the customer fault and the customer by no mean has initiated any transaction or helped any transaction. No logical revert came from SBI. November 22nd I have then wrote to YOU madam, unfortunately that mail also got forwarded to the same SBI authority and i again for same templated reply without any proof / system log. It appeared that the authority always knew that its customer's obligation to prove that he is not guilty. I am again stating (after good 75 days of the incident) that if you investigate properly with all system logs you would see that (i) there was not a single OTP generated for so called "INTERNET transactions" (ii) It is practically and humanly impossible to have so many transaction in such a small time frame and (iii) One could not also identify any merchant who facilitate such transaction ... If this still goes un-resolved i have to take it to consumer court and try for justice ... and let me also mention that such a step would then diminish all respect for SBI, atleast for our minds. Request your good-self to reconsider and help the senior citizen recover his lost pension and saving. thanks. regards, Goutam Datta. Nov 22 - To the Chairwoman of SBI Respected Ma'am, I am writing this letter in behalf of my father Mr. Gopal Chandra Dutta. He is an SBI customer for last 3 - 4 decades. On September 28, 2015 he lost his pension and saving (total ? 36,494.00) due to some fraudulent event on his SBI bank account. He has complained to the branch manager and local police station but got really little help. In his behalf i have emailed the details to RBI and SBI authorities but have not got satisfactory revert yet. Details of these communication and our concerns are in the mail trail. Request your intervention to (i) find a root cause of such incident, so that you could protect others from such fraud and (ii) get my father's lost pension and saving back. In case you need any details, we would be happy to provide. apart from this email id, i am reachable at + 91 98206 39702 and my father (he is old and may not be very savvy) is reachable at his registered mobile number (+91 94343 *****). Thanks. regards, Goutam Datta. Nov 19 to AGM Customer service and DGM Customer Service Hi, My father is a senior citizen, and he got a call on that day from a person impersonating as SBI Branch Manager and he just asked the state the 16 digit card NOS and the caller himself told NO TO SHARE OTHER DETAILS over call,. while father was speaking to this person he was getting the SMSs stating withdrawal ... which is where he disconnected the call and immediately checked his account at nearest ATM, Also note the caller was speaking in Bengali language. How is just by sharing Debit Card number one can have such transaction. My father is not tech savvy and i m reconfirming that he HAS NOT SHARED any other details. also so many transaction within the same second is not possible even if someone one using the online transaction ... pls note as per RBI rule online transaction required double authentication in for of OTP - which was just not the case here ... one can always check system logs to confirm. While you are stating these transaction was NOT POSSIBLE without sharing all these authentication details but in this case it has happened. and a police complain is also lodged in local policy station. Request you to please investigate the event and assist him to recover the money lost. thanks. regards, Goutam Datta. Below is the reply we got on Nov 4th (after supposedly SBI has has done their part of investigation to safeguard customer's interest) ... please also note that this is from a Bank that almost every Indian bank's from... Dear Sir/ Madam, All these transactions are successful transaction (card not present transaction) and have been done for online purchases using SBI Debit Card details and we confirm that 1) these transactions are not possible without customer himself/herself divulges card details like card number, expiry date, CVV2 and 3D Secure password, which are required for such transactions. 2) Further account number, PIN and OTP received on customer’s registered mobile number which are also disclosed . If these transactions have happened, it clearly means that customer would have shared these details knowingly or unknowingly with someone else. customer is advised to lodge FIR with Police preferably Cyber Police immediately. Regards Asstt. General Manager (Customer Service)
i am terribly unsatisfied in this case as we could not recover our hard earned money. I would love to accept a suggestion backed up by real proceeding to really recover the amount ... the expense in this case should also be capped to a max upper limit. Please advice. thanks
As bank have replied that "customer is advised to lodge FIR with Police preferably Cyber Police immediately."
You may approach police with a complaint in this regard, besides, you may even file a money recovery suit or consumer case against the bank for their irresponsible reply and atttude
"
1) as suggested by bank lodge complaint with cyber police .
2) if your father had disclosed the card details and secure password and the PIN and OTP unknowingly money could have been with drawn from the bank .
3) if no OTP was generated at the mobile number to authenticate the transaction and money fraudulently with drawn seek compensation from the bank under the ITAct
You have communicated with them, which has so far proved futile. Now open the doors of the consumer forum to recover your lost money with compensation. The lawyer's fee can be disclosed only by the individual lawyer whom you approach.
1. This online transactions are automated by programming with adequate transactional security,
2. It appears that the account nos, password and all other details required for conducting transaction has been leaked out to the fraudsters who siphoned out money from the said account,
3. File a police complaint and move writ Petition in case police refuses to take any action, as suggested in my earlier post.