Dear Fraud! ICICI Bank Held Liable For Customer Losing Money In Fraudulent Transaction, To Pay 1.75L.

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Runjhun

complaint against ICICI Bank, to pay 1.75 lakh to consumer who lost money due to fraud

Imagine, one fine day, over 1 lakh are withdrawn from your account–without your knowledge or involvement.

We for one would have definitely had a mini heart attack.

But it happens, way more frequently than any of us would be comfortable to admit. And in most cases, the bank refuses liability, pinning the blame on the consumer and washing their hands off the issue completely.

A consumer forum is New Delhi, however, decided to depart from the norm and pinned the blame squarely on the bank, making them pay up not only the lost amount but also compensation for harassment.

A consumer, holding a salary account in ICICI Bank, received 5 SMS alerts in January 2009, each relating to withdrawal of Rs.25,000 from his salary account, totalling Rs. 1.25 lakh, within minutes. He immediately contacted the bank, which, after conducting a probe, informed him that some fraudsters had removed the money from his account.

The complainant had alleged that the bank was negligent with regard to safety of customers’ confidential information, including password, and as a result he suffered financial loss. The bank obviously denied that it was negligent, and contended that the possibility of involvement of the consumer himself in the alleged fraud cannot be ruled out.

The forum however was less than sympathetic towards the bank considering the idea of the consumer himself sharing the information absurd and considered the possibility of involvement of the bank employees in the fraud was much more probable. The forum held that there was gross negligence and deficiency in service on the part of the bank which caused the heavy financial loss to the complainant and directed the bank to return him the amount along with compensation of Rs.50,000.

ICICI Bank to pay Rs.1.75 lakh for customer’s loss due to fraud (Livemint)

Lost In A Click, Lost Forever! Banking Ombudsman And Banks Refuse To Grant Relief In Internet Banking Frauds

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Posted on February 7, 2013 by Runjhun

Complaint About Internet Banking Frauds, Banking Ombudsman And Bankers Refuse To Grant Relief (Picture Credit :commerce.idaho.gov)

Two disturbing pieces of news unsettled our inbox today. Disturbing not because they concerned a national crisis; but simply because they implied that all of us avid internet users were under a dire threat..of losing money!

The first piece of news is from Mumbai where within 12 hours and 20 overseas transactions, a businessman lost over Rs. 2 lakhs in an instance of massive internet banking fraud of horrifying proportions. This Tardeo based businessman’s wife’s credit card was used for overseas transactions at the time when the family was in the city. What makes his situation worst is the fact that the issuing bank was way less than helpful and the police made him run around for 21 days before filing an FIR. Finally, the BKC cyber police registered a case on January 4, but the bank is yet to get back to him. He doesn’t even know if the transactions were made online or with a fake card.

Even though the bank has claimed that pending resolution, they have given temporary credit of Rs 2,05,023 for the 9 disputed transactions in customer’s credit card account, the incident is still a haunting highlight of the fate of internet banking and credit card frauds in the country.

Adding to the gloom, is another piece of news, again from Maharashtra.

The Maharashtra State Banking Ombudsman has refused to intervene in a dispute between a Kolhapur-based businessman, R. Unnithan, and his bank claiming that the case involves ‘elaborate documentary and oral evidence.’, which as per Banking Ombudsman Scheme is valid ground for rejecting a complaint.

Unnithan’s net banking account was hacked and an amount of Rs.9.65 lakh was withdrawn in 24 transactions across the country between April 12 and 13, 2012.

This decision opens floodgates of troubles for the consumers caught in internet banking frauds because in most such cases bankers too refuse to take responsibility claiming that most such cases happen due to customer’s negligence and that banks take sufficient precautions and advice customers against such frauds.

While Banking Ombudsman does have a point to the extent that they are not an investigative forum, equipped to handle such cases; it does not in any way mitigate the fact that the consumers are regularly losing money in such internet banking frauds and are forced to suffer in the absence of a dedicated redressal mechanism. The liability needs to be set off for the aggrieved consumers and cyber cells in the country should be better prepared to handle such cases and ensure that money lost at a single click of a mouse is not lost forever!

In 12 hours, Mumbai woman’s credit card used in 4 continents (Times of India)

Ombudsman washes hands of internet banking frauds (Hindu)

Value Added Service Activated Without Consent? Dial 155223 And Get It Deactivated!

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Posted on February 7, 2013 by Runjhun

Complaint Against Wrong Activation Of Value Added Services, Register At 15223 And Get It Deactivated

It was a couple of days ago that we reported TRAI’s latest initiative to curb the pesky calls menace where the consumers were required to forward the erring SMS to 1909 for registering a complaint against it. (See full story Received A Pesky SMS? Forward It To 1909.)

While the success of this service is still under scrutiny with plenty of consumers reporting that menace continues unrelented. It remains a point of debate whether this is a result of lack of consumer initiative in using the services and reporting or the service has failed to achieve its objective as such. Perceived success notwithstanding, this was still a start and is bound to have made a difference at least in some quarters, even if not entirely in visible.

And now, TRAI has come up with another set of services to curb the widely prevalent practice of activating value added services (VAS) without the consumer’s consent. Consumers can now register complaint about wrongful activation of value added services (VAS) like internet and caller tunes on a new common number, 155223, for all operators.

These services are, by design, more action oriented that the previous one dealing with pesky SMS in the sense that once the complaint has been registered by a consumer, telecom operators will have to refund the amount charged for such activation of services. The only condition here is that to be able to get the refund, the consumer will have to inform about it within 24 hours on this common number.

Subscribers who have been using any value added services beyond 24 hours can also request for deactivation of service on this number. Telecom operator will have to deactivate service within four hours of getting phone call but the customer will not be eligible to claim refund in such cases.

The regulations have come in place from February 1, after the industry players failed to convince TRAI against them. Simply put, February 1, 2013 onwards, operators will have to take consent of subscribers before activating any VAS and deactivate it without charging for it if no consent is received from them.

Interestingly, compliance with these regulations will lead to an estimated Rs 12,000 crore revenue loss to the industry, which just about begins to describe the extent to which the industry thrives on cheating and troubling average consumers.

Good Riddance, we say!

New number to deactivate unwanted mobile services (Times of India)

Fat Rejection! IRDA Refuses Demands To Include Weight Loss Surgeries In Mediclaim.

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Runjhun

IRDA rejects demands to include weight loss surgeries in health insurance

This should have been a no-brainer. But the number of people who consider their weight a life-destroying reality, not so much.

And so despite vehement arguments from Bariatric surgeons on how bariatric surgery, that is, weight loss surgery ‘saves lives’, IRDA was not impressed.

The pro-coverage lobby’s arguments were hardly as frivolous as they sound and according to bariatric surgeon Dr Sanjay Borude, who operates on around 20 patients a month, said barely one per cent of the patients who opt to go under the knife do it for sheer cosmetic purposes. According to Dr. Borude, most of the patients who opt for weight-loss surgery are suffering from life-threatening ailments, a huge chunk of which cannot be conducted because of lack of funds.

Bariatric surgery is categorised by the insurance companies as a procedure done for cosmetic purposes, hence it is not covered in the insurance, despite repeated protests by the bariatric surgeons. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) rejected the demand to include bariatric surgery in the medical insurance despite arguments to the contrary.

We say, surgeons many have had a point but sometimes perceptions can seriously hinder our and in this case, IRDA’s view of facts on the ground.

No mediclaim for weight-loss surgeries: IRDA (Mumbai Mirror)

Care For Some ‘Rat’ Biryani? IRCTC’s Pantry Serves It With Elan!

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Runjhun

complaint-against-railways-irctc-pantry-serves-rat-biryani

There are times when ‘disgusting’ is the extreme expression…and then there are others, when ‘disgusting’ too falls short, distressingly short!

Imagine digging into a plate of biryani and fishing out a dead, very much cooked rat!

Please don’t throw up…that is your laptop screen afterall!

Revolting as this sounds, a bunch of Gujarati pilgrims had to go through this very ordeal, ironically, when they were returning from a trip to Vaishno Devi.

A family from Valsad was served this very ‘rat biryani’ from the pantry of the Sarvodaya Express while returning home from a pilgrimage to the Vaishno Devi in Jammu & Kashmir. Incidentally, half of the about 300 pilgrims from Ahmedabad on the train had ordered the biryani dish.

And we are grateful that we don’t have the statistics of how many had already polished this biryani off before this ‘ratty’ revelation came through. The railway staff tried to get rid of the evidence by the disposing the remaining biryani off but people had already recorded their actions in their mobile cameras.

While our condolences are with the rats who have been residing with the Indian Railways even before its actual inception, we must note that by human standards, the Railway pantry staff got off pretty lightly. A written apology and the promise to take whole responsibility if anyone did end up suffering from the food poisoning. What about the rats we say!

On a serious note, much as the incident is revolting, what is even more concerning is the fact that they did get off very lightly when an extremely stringent action was fully warranted.

Sigh! an opportunity to bite IRCTC’s head off was lost!

Railways serves “rat biryani” to Gujarati pilgrims (Times of India)

Happy Borrowing Ahead! Loans All Set To Get Cheaper As RBI Slashes The Key Interest Rates.

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Posted on January 29, 2013 by Runjhun

Loans All Set To Get Cheaper, RBI Slashes The Interest Rates

The guessing game is finally over and the much awaited, speculated and warranted RBI rate cuts are here.

These much awaited rate cuts have come after a period of around 9 months. The Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday slashed its key interest rates by 25 basis points and released Rs 18,000 crore additional liquidity into the system. The RBI slashed the short term lending rate or the repo rate 25 basis points (bps) to 7.75 per cent and Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by similar margin to 4 per cent, releasing Rs 18,000 crore primary liquidity into the system.

Technical jargons aside, in terms of practical implications, a reduction in the repo rate means a reduced cost of borrowing for individuals and corporates and a slashed CRR means banks have to park a smaller portion of the deposits with RBI which in turn means better availability of the funds in the system.

The repo rate, which was cut last in April 2012, stands revised at 7.75 per cent with immediate effect, while the liquidity infusing CRR stands at 4 per cent effective February 9.

The intent of the RBI behind these cuts is to provide an appropriate interest rate environment.

Happy Borrowing, Consumers!

Loans may get cheaper as RBI cuts key interest rates by 25 bps (Times of India)