Card fraud: Bengaluru techie duped of Rs 2.7 lakh

Bengaluru: Cyber criminals seem to have honed their skills and adopted new methods to cheat the gullible people. The criminals pose as agents working with leading banks, access your data, scan your credentials, create credit cards with a different name and make away with your personal documents. A city-based senior software professional was allegedly duped of Rs 2.7 lakh recently.

Mr Rajeshnaidu Kuruguntala, an employee with Accenture, Bengaluru and a resident of Kalyan Nagar, got a shock of his life August 8 when he received a mail from Axis Bank stating that a payment of Rs 2.7 lakh was due towards his credit card.

Mr Kuruguntala, who is the United States, told Deccan Chronicle over phone, “I hold an Axis Bank savings account for the last seven years. I had applied for a credit card from the same bank in May 2016 as I was supposed to travel onshore in June 2016 and thought of having an additional card to meet the expenses. A representative of the bank came to me and collected all the documents (passport, Pan card etc) along with the application. As I didn’t hear anything from him for a long time, I contacted him. He picked up my call, but said that he was on a vacation and that my application was being processed. As I never heard anything from the bank, I presumed that it was not processed.”

He said, “But on August 8, I got the mail stating that my credit card outstanding was Rs. 2.7 lakh. When I called the bank and spoke to a representative, Thimmiah, the fraud came to light.”

When Mr Kuruguntala asked the bank representative to verify the details, he learnt that his name, email ID, phone number and other credentials, except his address, had been used to create the credit card. “My details have been misused by the credit card division of Axis Bank or someone has committed a fraud and issued the card in my name with a different address and mobile number. As I have a savings account, the bank has linked it to my customer ID and contacted me for the payment. I am not sure how they verified my address and employment as I am not in the address that is mentioned in the card. Is it someone from the bank who is involved in the scam? As I already have an account, why did they not try to verify and match the details or inform me before issuing the card? When I called the bank, the officials behaved rudely, as if I have committed the fraud,” he said.

The station in-charge of the Hennur police station told Deccan Chronicle that the complainant can register an e-complaint from the USA and the police will register a case. Mr Kuruguntala said that he would file the e-complaint.