Telangana: e-transaction frauds highest in SBI

Hyderabad, Feb 01: The State Bank of India has topped the list of banks that saw highest number of e-transaction frauds in 2017-18. Such frauds take place when passwords, ID or banking transactions were easy to crack into.

According to the Union finance ministry, SBI customers were reportedly robbed of Rs 50.29 crore from their accounts. The bank registered 574 complaints, the maximum among 53 banks operating in India.

The City Union Bank was at the second spot with a single complaint speaking of fraud of Rs 31.55 crore, followed by the American Express Banking Corporation.

Altogether, 2,488 legitimate Indian account holders across 53 banks were robbed of Rs 149.62 crore through online fraud in 2017-18, the maximum lost since 2015. People in Andhra Pradesh lost Rs 51.27 lakh while those in Telangana lost Rs 336 crore, five times more.

The most fraudulent e-transaction took place in Tamil Nadu, where an amount of Rs 40.85 lakh was siphoned off, followed by in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

In a majority of cases, the modus operandi included vishing, phishing, card-cloning, e-wallet fraud, financial swindling via social sites and other duping on lottery and holiday packages. Criminals impersonate as bank officials and extract debit/credit card details along with card verification value (CVV) number on the phone.

In the first three months of the financial year (April-June 2018-19), 661 cases of fraud involving Rs 34.36 crore have been registered. On the other end, the increase in the number of banking frauds also indicates that a large number of Indian shave adopted digital banking.

According to a global survey conducted by FIS, a financial services technology firm, in 2018, around 18 per cent of surveyed Indians reported a fraud.

This was higher than any other country’s respondents. In comparison, only 8 per cent of people from Germany reported a fraud, followed by 6 per cent in the UK. A major portion of frauds affected Indians between the ages of 27 to 37.