Holding that State Bank of India had not taken suitable security measures at its Automated Teller Machines, Mysore District Consumer Forum has ordered SBI to return the amount which was withdrawn unauthorizedly from the account of one of its customers (order passed on 27-8-09 in Case No. CC/09/207).
Srinivas Gudi is a marine engineer working for Shell International Shipping and Trading Company. On 3rd and 4th December of 2008, Rs. 99,000 was withdrawn from ATMs in Malaysia using his SBI debit card and his code number. But Gudi was on duty aboard a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at that time. Gudi's wife noticed this large debit from his account and called him immediately. Using satellite phone, he called his bank and informed them of this unauthorized withdrawal from his account.
When Gudi finished his tour of duty and came back to Mysore, he again contacted the bank to get his money back, but the bank insisted that the withdrawals were done using his debit card and his code number. Gudi's protestations that he had his card with him on the ship all the time and that he had not disclosed the code number even to his family members bore no fruit. So he decided to file a complaint before the Mysore District Consumer Forum.
During the hearings, M.Y.Kumar, the advocate for the complainant produced documents from the internet which showed that hackers routinely hack into computers of card companies, obtain credit card numbers and code numbers and use this information to steal millions of dollars from ATM machines all over the world. In the background of this widely available information, the advocate argued that SBI had not taken suitable precautionary measures, especially, implementing the smart chip technology which is being used in more than 65 countries to prevent such fraudulent withdrawals from the accounts of unwary customers.
The Forum agreed with these contentions and ordered SBI to reimburse the amount fraudulently withdrawn from Gudi's account. It also awarded Rs. 10,000 towards mental agony suffered by Gudi and Rs. 16,000 for other expenses incurred by Gudi.
P.M. Bhat, Member, Mysore Grahakara Parishat