State Bank of India has been one of the Banks specially targetted by Card fraudsters for cloning and fraudulent withdrawal. A few years ago, Damodaran Committee of RBI recommended the most sensible control where by the customer should be given the ability to switch on and off the online banking facility.
Now We understand that SBI has introduced a “SBI Quick” service where a customer can switch on and off the use of debit cards through SMS and or Missed calls.
While the full details of how the system operates and whether it would be limited to the use of Debit cards or would be extended to credit cards, are awaited, the service in principle is welcome and has to be a mandatory feature.
This is similar to the olden day locking and unlocking of STD facility in a phone.
Hopefully the implementation of SBI quick will ensure that the security weaknesses in the current system donot also spill over to this locking and unlocking system where by a fraudster may just look at this as one additional step to cross before he continues to do what he is presently doing.
Naavi
