10 January,2011 07:27 AM IST | | Shashank Shekhar
Noida call centre employee duped
He was an avid online shopper and credit card user. But he had never imagined that these easy modes of
making payments would also be vulnerable to fraud and he would end up losing his hard earned money.
Wild card: Aditya Kothari's credit card was used at three places andu00a0
transactions worth 84,540 rupees were made. Pic/Mid Day
On December 17, 2010,u00a0 24-year-old Aditya Kothari, who works in a BPO in Noida sector 62, got a call from his bank asking him if was shopping at that moment. Puzzled at the question, Kothari replied inu00a0 the negative. The bank then told him that at that time his card was being used to make payments at some store.
"On that fateful evening at around 8 pm, I received a call on my mobile from bank's card surveillance department asking me if I was shopping for any jewellery. I immediately said no. They then told me that someone was using my card.u00a0 I was shocked as the card was lying with me and was not even stolen."
u00a0
said Kothari. "I told the bank so and they got it verified by asking me its number and other details which I gave them. Once they were convinced, I put in a request to block the card, which they did immediately. The bank then told me that in the afternoon, the card was used at three places and a transaction of Rs 84,540 has been made. I told them that I have been cheated and they assured me that investigation was on. I even lodged a complaint with the police next day," he added.
The New Year, however, brought in more sad news for Kothari as the bank started claiming the outstanding amount against his credit card.
According to the bank officials, the matter is still under investigation. "As a rule, we always communicate and educate our customers not to hand over the card to anyone, not even to the executive. In case of a card upgrade, we ask the customer to destroy the card and keep it with himself. In this case, the card was with the customer so he needs to pay the money. If any foul play is found we will take action against the culprit," said a senior bank official.
| Safety first |
| Most banks are asking for an additional password from their credit card customers from the beginning of this year for any transactions conducted over phone, subsequent to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) direction for making phone banking more secure. |
| Beware of fraud mails |
| Beware of replying to any e-mail that claims to be from your bank without proper authentication. Noida-based marketing executive Vivek Dabral learnt this the hard way when he replied to one such mail. "In October last, I got a mail claiming to be from my bank asking me to verify my account details. The mail appeared so authentic that I replied and didn't even check my account. Although it was a salary account but I was using it for my savings too. On November 11 when I tried to open my account through the Internet, I couldn't do so with my existing password. I asked for a new password and when I checked the account later, I found Rs 1,31,000 missing. I immediately informed my bank," said Vivek. |
