Complaints related to debit or credit cards received by the office of Banking Ombudsman, Reserve Bank of India, have increased by 75 per cent compared to last year.
Banking Ombudsman for Karnataka M Palaniswamy has cautioned people not to fall prey to fictitious offers of lottery, scholarship offers through phishing mails.
These complaints relate to ATM withdrawals, e-payments for purchase of goods and for payments for transactions in merchandise establishments. A total of 1,279 such cases were registered between July 2012 and June 2013, while it was just 732 during the previous corresponding period. It constituted 36 percent of the overall cases, he said.
“While, the complaints relating to ATM withdrawals have come down, those involving other cases have increased,” he added.
When asked if they are coordinating with the Police Department’s Cyber Crime Cell, he said, “The Ombudsman does not coordinate with the crime branch. We will consider such measures in future.” He also said that a good number of cases could be prevented if the banks send SMS alerts to customers on transactions.
“It is also unfortunate that some customers have not registered their mobile numbers with the banks,” Palaniswamy said.