MUMBAI: A Colaba-based lawyer, who activated her debit card at a local ATM kiosk found Rs 40,000 withdrawn from her account 10 minutes later. When she complained to the card-issuing bank, the sum was credited to her account in a fortnight, only to be debited once again. The lawyer is puzzled as to how could the money be withdrawn from her account when the card was in her possession. With the bank refusing to reverse the debit, she is now in the process of lodging a complaint with the consumer forum and the RBI.
The incident took place on March 29, when
Shamina Nasikwala and her husband,
Huzefa, also an advocate, went to an ATM on
Shahid Bhagat Singh Marg in
Colaba. According to Shamina, she wanted to activate her new debit card and generate an ATM Pin for it. She said she inserted the card in the slot and entered the one-time password texted to her by the bank. After activating the card, she checked her balance, took a printout of the mini-statement and left. “The kiosk was unguarded. It had three machines; I used the one in the centre,” she told TOI.
“At 5.43pm, I got a text alert about Rs 40,000 being debited from my account. I rushed back to the kiosk with my husband but it was empty. My husband dialled the bank’s customer care and got the card blocked. As it was a weekend, we visited the bank two days later to fill up a dispute form. I gave a written complaint to the Colaba police,” she said.
On April 9, the bank credited the disputed sum of Rs 40,000 to her account. “I was under the impression that the matter was resolved, but it wasn’t. On April 12 and on April 13, the bank employees called us up and told us to check CCTV footage of the ATM kiosk. Then, without any prior notice, the sum of Rs 40,000 was again debited from my account on April 13,” Shamina said. The couple followed up with the bank and went to view the CCTV footage at their branch on April 18.
“The footage showed a person standing at the door of the kiosk when we were activating our card on the machine. At 5.40pm, when the fraudulent transaction took place, we weren’t seen on camera so it’s clear that we did not carry out the transaction. Two men withdrew some cash from a machine on the extreme right of the kiosk and left in a rush. It’s not clear from which machine was my money withdrawn and how. The police refused to register an FIR,” said Shamina.
When contacted by TOI, the bank said it would need 48 hours to check and comment.
Representative image