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A serious grey area - Fraud in net banking

HDFC to pay for negligence

The National Consumer Disputes Commission last week ruled that HDFC Bank was negligent by not verifying the signatures on applications for net banking and electronic money transfer, leading to siphoning of money from the salary account of one Swapan Kumar. According to his complaint, bank officials conniving with a former security guard of the bank, forged his signatures on applications. Ordering compensation, the commission observed that "had the concerned bank manager been careful, he would have rejected the applications… The official at least on noting the difference in signatures was expected to contact the complainant to verify them."

 Article referred: http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/disparity-in-computing-compensation-115112200776_1.html

 Note:
This is a potentially dangerous situation. In this case, the plaintiff was a able prove that he had not applied for net banking. But with the all pervading presence of net based transactions, it would a minority who today does not opt for net banking. Now if someone had applied for it and had the same thing had happened with him what happened to the Plaintiff here, what would he do ? It appears that all the bank has to do is show that you had applied for net banking and allege that you must have shared your details with a third person. Then the onus is on you to disprove their allegation. This to my mind is a serious grey area.

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