SBI ATM card fraud in Silchar; victim unhappy with the bank and police

Retired State Bank of India employee’s sister-in-law recently fell prey to some ATM fraudsters and lost a significant amount of hard-earned money. Shashwati Biswas, an employee in Udharbond Block Development Office and resident of Chengkoorie area received eight-ten SMSes on her mobile phone asking for OTP at around 4:50 PM on December 10, 2018. She immediately rushed to her brother-in-law, a retired SBI banker, “A few minutes later I along with her rushed to a nearby ATM counter to check the balance and found that Rs 19,999, RS.9999, Rs.9999 and Rs.9999  aggregating Rs.49996 was debited from the account,” says Pinak Debroy, Shaswati’s brother-in-law.

Debroy, despite having worked in the banking sector for such a long time is unable to understand how the fraudster without knowing the OTP from her phone successfully went on with the transactions. “Cybercrime has reached such a high level that they can breach any security. Because in the instant case out of 10 attempts of OTP they became successful in 4 occasions. All this happened in a fraction of a minute,” adds Debroy.

We have analysed the account statement of Shashwati Biswas and it is clear that fraudster(s) added money to his/her/their e-wallet. Rs 19,999 was added to an Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Limited (ABIPBL) wallet, Rs 9,999 was added to Vodafone’s e-wallet MPESA, Rs 9,999 was added to Phonepe which is National Payment Corporation of India’s e-wallet/UPI. The last fraudulent transaction of Rs 9,999 was done to refill an Ola money account.

One can use e-wallets to purchase items for partnered merchants/retailers, shop online or book tickets, hotels etc. By paying a processing fee ranging between 2 – 10 per cent, one can even transfer the money back to his/her/their registered bank account(s). The above-mentioned wallets are well established as fintech companies and have a credible vigilance team too. “One call from the Police to these wallets and they will get each and every minute details, like the number associated with the wallets, under whose names are the wallets registered, which location was the fraudster(s) stationed when they made these transactions etc.” says an expert researching on cybercrime.

Pinak Debroy did lodge an FIR (4205) with police on December 10 itself, “I have also submitted a written complaint in SBI Silchar Branch,” he informs. Adding, “Almost two weeks now, I observe lack of sincerity from both Police as well as the bank.” SBI customer care executive (tele) gave him a ticket number after registering his complaint and asked him to wait for a period of 46 days.

Now, on one side when the government of India is promoting cashless transactions and urging people to keep money their bank accounts, such fraudulent transactions and slow or no investigation process certainly bring in a second thought. For now, 14 days have passed and Shashwati Biswas has no clue when she might get her money back or who stole her hard-earned money.