Calling attention of Branch Manager, State Bank of India, Musiri Branch, Tamil Nadu

This is an open letter to

The Manager, State Bank of India, Musiri Branch, Tiruchirapalli Branch, Tamil Nadu.

Dear Sir

I am informed that on June 7th 2017, 5 fraudulent withdrawals have been made from one of the customer’s of your branch having account number 3353XXXXX38  (P.S: Full Name and other details are already known to you and hence it is not reproduced in this public forum. If required, it will be provided) amounting to Rs 49773/- which was the hard earned savings of a poor customer.

I have reasons to believe that SBI has been completely negligent in passing these fraudulent debits to the account without following proper security measures as required under Information Technology Act 2000/8 and RBI guidelines.

I am aware that you would be having your excuses on why you passed the forged transactions without following reasonable security practices. These are subject matter of further detailed litigation if it becomes necessary.

I also request you to refrain from obtaining any false declarations from the customer under duress to defend your position.

In the meantime, I would like you to kindly inform your customer in writing the following:

1. Full details of each of the 5 debits including the nature of transaction, IP addresses if they were online transactions, Merchant establishment details if they were offline transactions.
2. Details of any awareness training you had provided to the customer regarding the risks of digital payments when you decided to provide him a Debit card and internet access.
3. Reasons why you have not reimbursed the amount as per RBI guidelines on “Limited Liability” when the fraud was reported to you
4. Reasons why you have indulged in a money laundering exercise in association with the fraudsters and allowed your customer to be cheated.
5. Reasons why you have not invoked Cyber Insurance and given a refund to the customer immediately.
6.  Your views on whether this fraud related to the recent incident when SBI recalled 6 lakh debit cards which were compromised and if not, why do you think it is not so related.
7. The details of when and how you have reported this fraud to CERT-In and your HO and if not, why you chose not to report the fraud as required under law as well as regulatory guidelines.
8. If the payments have been made at any ATM outlets or Merchant Establishments, kindly obtain and forward CCTV footages with Section 65B (Indian Evidence Act)  certification. If you are unable to produce such footage, please provide reasons on why you are unable to produce such evidence.
9. If the transactions were made online, please obtain and send all log records showing the entry of CVV, VBB and other security PIN if any with date time etc again with Section 65B (IEA) certification. If you are unable to provide such information, kindly let us know the reasons why you donot want to produce such evidence.
10. If the transactions were made offline, please obtain and send the POS machine logs along with transaction summary slips showing the customer’s signature. if you are unable to provide the same, kindly give reasons on under which RBI guideline you are allowing Card Not Present transactions without obtaining the customer’s signature and matching it with the signature on the back of the card.
11. If the money is purported to have been drawn by some third party fraudsters, kindly obtain and forward the KYC documents to identify the fraudsters. If you are unable to produce such information, kindly indicate why you are allowing such money laundering to be committed by your Bank and its associates.
12. Please also send the names and designations of all SBI officials and the Merchant Establishments and ATM owners who are involved in this money laundering exercise.

I will collect the information from your customer so that decision can be taken on further course of action including launching of criminal proceedings against State Bank of India and its officials including you.

I wish you would immediately take steps to refund the amount to your customer as per RBI guidelines so that there would be no requirement of further action.

Regards

Naavi

I am also intending to initiate launch of a public movement at Musiri to ask all your customers to return all cards issued by SBI as they are likely to be used by associates of the Bank to defraud innocent customers. I hope this would be a national movement that will make SBI realize its responsibilities in dealing with E Banking.

I also call upon the Chair person of State Bank of India to take suitable steps to redress the grievance of the customer without raising any excuses.

I request the Adjudicator of Tamil Nadu (IT Secretary) to use his powers under Section 46 of ITA 2000/8 and initiate a suo-moto action against SBI to redress the grievance of the customer.

I request NGOs such as Cyber Society Of India (CySi) to take up the issue as a Public Interest and persuade SBI to see reason and redress the grievance of the customer.

I also request Reserve Bank of India to advise SBI to take immediate remedial action.

I also request NPCI and CERT In to intervene and assist in the resolution of the dispute since they are also responsible for the lack of adequate security of digital payment transactions.

I also request Mr Arun Jaitely and Mr Narendra Modi, honourable Finance Minister and Prime Minister of India who are pushing for digital payment systems without understanding if the public are ready or not and without ensuring that Banks are not hands in glove with fraudsters and looting public money to instruct SBI to redress the customer grievance immediately.

Naavi