Five days after he lost ₹40,000 from his account with the branch of a nationalised bank in the city through four different allegedly unauthorised withdrawals, a young lawyer in the city had another rude surprise when he received an alert about another attempted fraudulent transaction using his ATM card on Saturday morning.
It was all the more shocking since the bank concerned had taken back his debit card and blocked it after he had reported the fraud on Monday when four withdrawals of ₹10,000 each were made through as yet unidentified ATM centre or centres.
The alert received on his mobile at 10.07 a.m. said that that the transaction was declined as the ATM card remains blocked and asked him to contact the branch, which he did immediately.
“The attempted withdrawal is a clear sign of fraud probably by way of card cloning since my original debit card remains deposited with the bank and is blocked. Even five days after I lost the money, the bank has not been able to even track down the ATM from where the money was withdrawn. Worse still, they have even not bothered to respond to my mails or reassure me in any way,” said the youngster who continues to wait for the bank to credit the money he lost, which as per the Reserve Bank of India circular in 2017, should be done within 10 days where the victim had reported the fraud within three working days.
The manager of the branch concerned said that the latest attempted fraud could not be immediately verified since it was a holiday. Though the bank had moved for an insurance claim for the lost money, it had been done without attaching proof of reimbursement to the affected client as was the norm.
Meanwhile, the Central police where the young lawyer had lodged a petition, continue to wait for the bank to confirm the incident as a fraud to register a First Information Report. “The latest attempt is a clear indication of fraud and the bank should lose no more time in alerting the police,” the victim said.
Another youngster with a food aggregator had also lost ₹2,600 of his hard earned money from his account with another branch of the same bank in the city on the same day as the lawyer.
