Nri account
NRI Bank Account Fraud of Rs 7 laks

Mr. Deepak Parekh

HDFC Bank

Mumbai, India

Re: Regarding HDFC Bank Account Fraud using ATMs in USA

Dear Mr. Parekh

We are Senior citizens and opened an NRI account with your bank branch located in Faridabad. The account was opened by the bank manager and all forms were filled by him. As we are Senior citizens and are not familiar with new bank technologies and type of accounts, therefore all options were selected by the bank manager for the opened account. We trusted the bank manager that he would select all options which are good and secured for the customer. Upon receiving the package, we left the cheque book in India and destroyed the PIN as we had no intention of using the provided ATM CARD.

After coming to Canada, my son communicated with the bank manager many times over the phone and via email regarding transfer of money into this account. He even sent us NRO forms to our oversees address. He had all our contacts information (phone numbers, email and oversees address) and he could have updated our profile as we did not know that our profile does not have all the contact information for security alert. Due to the home computer virus situation, my son took the banking information to work for online transaction and forgot the package in a locked drawer. He brought the package back eventually but did not check if anything is missing. At the end of December, we came to know that ATM CARD was stolen and has been misused for 50 days for withdrawal of around 6.8 lakhs of rupees. While the theft was underway, the banking system did not raise any alert for itself or me. There was at least one transaction everyday for US$300 (Rs15000) for 50 days in a row which was the limit of the card. The card limit was also increased automatically to US$500 (Rs 25000) without even requesting possibly to assist the thieves. How the bank could not detect a fraud where a transaction is happening everyday for 50 days for the limit of the card? Why would customer send the money from one hand and withdraw from the other hand and also after paying huge international fees. If the customer wanted all the money back then could have requested through the bank manager rather than withdrawing everyday using ATMs daily limit. I understand that ATMs are not intended for such a huge transaction on daily basis then why the bank could not detect an unusual pattern and raise an alert. The bank could not provide any security/protection to the customer and the customer did not know that account security is an optional for the bank. On average, every person uses ATM once in 15 days and here was being used for 50 days in a row for the complete limit but the bank did not do nothing but kept on sleeping.

On top of all that your bank could not even provide the addresses of ATM locations so that the customer could open Police case in a timely manner. Till date we have not received any information about the timings of transactions. I hope you understand that video/pictures at lot of locations are kept only for 30 days or less and by now a lot of that evidence has gone because the bank could not provide the information. I hope that you understand that how difficult it is for us to contact any banking official or do any transaction as there does not exist any HDFC branch here. It is every customer expectation and specially NRIs that the banks had utmost security in place to protect customers hard earn money which they keep with the bank in all good faith. My son even moved significant business from ICICI bank with this faith that your bank provides better services and security would not be an optional but mandatory and our money is in safe hands.

The customer should not be considered liable for a stolen card while the bank did not do anything to MITIGATE THE RISK AND LOSS. I would like to emphasize that we did not compromise the PIN and we did not get any information from the bank how that was obtained by thieves. I even heard from local police that there does not exist any picture/activity for some of the reported date transactions by the bank. I am not even sure if all fraudulent transactions took place on those days using ATM. We received a Disputed Transaction form from the bank manager long back ago which we filled and sent it back but I never heard back from him with the outcome. I urge you to consider Senior citizens request to look into this matter more closely and requesting for reimbursement of account as all transaction between Nov 18 and Dec 31 are fraudulent.

Company: Nri account
Country: India

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