Uttarakhand Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ordered public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) to refund the amount that an SBI bank customer lost allegedly due to a card cloning incident. Parthasarathy Mukherjee, a resident of Roorkee, was defrauded of Rs 80,000 in 2015 by a fraudster who allegedly withdrew the same sum from two ATMs in Delhi, according to a Times of India Report.
SBI Bank failed to provide the necessary evidence, such as CCTV footage, to the police, which the court cited as the main reason for providing compensation to the victim. The state commission held that the police investigation ended incompletely as the bank could not provide CCTV footage of the disputed transactions. The court rejected the bank's argument that the customer had committed this fraud upon himself by sharing the ATM card and password with another person.
Customers can feel reassurance that they are entitled to compensation if the bank fails in its duty of protecting the ATM, from ATM tampering here, an ATM cloning and cannot get away without providing the CCTV footage.
This case underscores that unauthorised transactions from your account must be promptly notified. After it was found that an "unknown person had fraudulently withdrawn Rs 10,000 each through eight transactions", Mukherjee promptly sent an email intimating the same to the bank.
What Is Card Cloning? How To Protect Oneself
Card cloning or skimming is a fraudulent technique used to steal credit card or debit card information, using devices called skimmers in ATM payment terminals, when you make a transaction. These skimmers capture data from your card's magnetic stripe, including account numbers and PINs. Then the stolen is used to create cloned cards. Banks will be held liable if they fail to provide adequate safety to the ATM kiosks, the verdict of Uttarakhand Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission highlights.
The State Bank of India (SBI) had earlier in a card cloning case in 2020 announced that it would refund customers affected by ATM card cloning. There were several cases of cloned ATM cards in Delhi, and the bank announced that it would refund customers.
The bank had then announced to protect yourself from card skimming by using ATMs installed within trusted locations and inspecting the kiosks for any signs of tampering before proceeding with transactions. Check for cameras hidden in the kiosks to capture your card data. Cover the keypad while entering your PIN and use contactless payments whenever possible. One should change the PIN number at regular intervals and avoid using obvious numbers like birthday dates.
