Identity Theft – Banks not competent enough.

by sajin on March 21, 2006

::wikipedia(Direct_Debit,Direct Debit)::, ECS, ::wikipedia(Real_Time_Gross_Settlement,RTGS)::, ::wikipedia(Electronic_Funds_Transfer,EFT):: – the array of services offered by banks in India for our convenience grow every day. However, it is high time the ::wikipedia(Reserve_Bank_of_India,Reserve Bank):: made a study on how good our banks are in handling issues like Identity Theft, and more importantly their attitude/rules towards such events. Here is an incident narrated by a colleague robbed of his money. Worse, the banks involved are not ready to admit their mistake and take prompt action to ensure the customer is not put through further agony. Leaves one wondering how banks like Citi has a totally different approach to such incidents in the US and when it comes to India they too have learnt to say “chalta hein”!

Hi All

I would like to share my experience with you people so that you can safeguard your bank accounts from being robbed silently.

I requested for a 100 leaf cheque book form Citi bank, Bangalore online in Jan-2004. I gave my office address of my previous company as my mailing address because my family was away at my native place during that time. The Citi bank sent the cheque book by courier, it reached my office on a Saturday and it was handed over to a security personnel at the rececption. He kept quiet for week & did not inform me because he had some other intentions. On Friday of the following week, he stole a projector, a laptop from my previous company & decamped along with my 100 leaf cheque book.

I waited & waited but Citi bank did not inform me about the delivery of cheque book. Thinking that my request for 100 leaf cheque book might have been rejected, I requested for another cheque book with 25 leaf online in Mar-04 which was luckily delivered to me in April-04.

My prevoius company filed an FIR with the police & but police were clueless about the thief.

Everything was fine till I discovered a debit of Rs. 16500/- from my account on 30-July-04. The thief forged my signature & issued a cheque from that stolen cheque book in Coimbatore. The Citi Bank, Banglore was so careless in verifying the signature that they cleared the forged cheque even though my actual signature & the forged signature were drastically different. On giving them a written complaint, they accepted their fault & credited back the amount withdrawn in Aug 04.

I gave a stop-payment request to Citibank for the remaining 99 cheques which were still with the thief. Bangalore Police was able to trace the thief in Coimbatore with help of the xerox copy of the forged cheque. He was put behind the bars for about an year.

Once he was freed on bail towards the end of 2005, he decided to invade my Citi bank account again with a more clever plan. In Dec 05, he presented a couple of cheques from the blocked cheque book which were returned by the Citi bank. Having realised that the cheque route was blocked, he managed to get fake identity card in my name with his photograph pasted on it with probable connivance of government staff.

He managed to impersonate me by producing some fake documents.

He took a two wheeler loan of amount Rs 32000/- in my name ie.”Dinesh Kumar Pandey” from ICICI Bank, Raheja Towers, MG Road & to repay the EMI, he somehow managed to get ECS mandate approval from CitiBank, MG Road, Bangalore. All these events took place in last 10 days of Dec05.

As I was out of station on a long vacation, I noticed it only 17-Feb-06. By then my Citi bank suvidha acc was already debited twice through ECS to repay the EMI of Rs. 2920/- against a loan which I have never taken.

Now I am running pillar to post to get my lost money back & not getting proper response from either of the Banks involved. I even attempted to file an FIR with Ashok Nagar Police Station. But it was in vain, the Police Inspector is advising me to sort the matter out with Banks only.

I am really finding it difficult to pursue the matter & bring it to a logical conclusion.

I need some assistance from you guys to highlight the handiwork of the two so called esteemed & modern Banks (::wikipedia(Citibank):: & ::wikipedia(ICICI_Bank,ICICI)::) in print & electronic media.

Thanks & Regards,
Dinesh Kumar Pandey

{ 3 comments }

Veronica April 7, 2006 at 8:27 am

It makes me feel sick, that this man stole like that. It’s unconscionable. I truly hope justice is served.

Sajin April 24, 2006 at 3:31 pm

Justice is a word which might interest you a wee bit more than the rest if you visited this part of the world 😉

see http://community.livejournal.com/bangalore/302879.html
or http://www.rediff.com/news/jes1999.htm

ShittyBank Customer September 12, 2006 at 1:41 am

Don’t even get started on the ShittyBank, oops, CitiBank – they levy all kinds of spruious charges disguised as ‘customer service’. Their helpdesks are totally clueless, and did I mention that they give no interest on the deposits. The only saving grace for ICICI is their website that’s infinitely more functional than the Citi, HDFC and the likes, even beats some of the western counterparts hands down.

PS: Seems like banks have Indianised the ‘customer’ = kasht-maar – kill with pain!

{ 1 trackback }

Previous post:

Next post: