BENGALURU: If you have been a victim of bank fraud, it is very important to know your rights and liabilities. The Reserve Bank of India has put in place stringent rules which are binding on banks and how they interact with customers.
These include procedures which call for repeated awareness campaigns through SMS as well as the creation of a robust fraud prevention mechanism. In a circular, last year, the RBI had listed out a list of procedures for banks while dealing with customers who have been victims of fraud.
The circular categorises fraudulent transactions into online banking, e-wallets etc. The apex bank asked financial institutions to ensure that they implemented a mechanism to assess risk and take appropriate measures to prevent fraud.
However, if you have been affected by credit/debit card fraud, there are some immediate steps that you should take, including notifying the bank at the earliest. The longer you take, the higher is the risk of not getting your money back, experts say.
In addition, the customer must keep all communication received by the bank in this matter carefully as this will help determine the liability. It is also compulsory to register your mobile number with the bank. The circular also states that the customer will have zero liability when there is a third party breach, where the bank or customer cannot be blamed or if there is negligence on part of the bank.
The customer will have limited liability when the loss is due to negligence by them. This can be by actions such as sharing payment details. However, once the unauthorised transaction is reported to the bank, any further transactions on the account will be the bank’s responsibility.
When the customer has not shared any details but has delayed reporting unauthorised transactions by more than four days and less than seven days after being notified by the bank, the maximum liability could range between `5000 to `25,000. The burden of proving customer liability in case of unauthorised electronic banking transactions shall lie on the bank.
According to experts, in 2018, data protection measures will become more stringent. “Data is the new oil and with so much data being generated every second, hackers are constantly devising ways to acquire it. As most cyber security measures till now have been reactive rather than preventive in nature, banks will now begin to adopt additional measures to ensure data security at all stages using a combination of encryption, OTPs, biometric authentication,” said S Sundararajan, Executive Director, i-exceed Technology Solutions, a technology company.