Customer data of top pvt bank compromised, police file FIR

A representative of HDFC bank complained to the police that its customers reported certain ATM cash withdrawal carried out on their cards but the transactions were neither carried out nor authorised by them

A leading private bank has complained to the police containing data of credit and debit cards of its customers at two of its units in Gurgaon were compromised and cash withdrawals were made through duplicate cards across the country.

An internal probe by the bank suggests that two merchant establishments could be at the centre of this data theft. (HT PHOTO)

A representative of HDFC bank complained to the police that its customers reported certain ATM cash withdrawal carried out on their cards but the transactions were not neither carried out nor authorised by them. Moreover, the customer contended that the cards were in their possession at the time of the disputed transactions.

The complaint was filed by Harish Kumar, senior manager intelligent control HDFC Bank Limited at Rajouri Garden, and an FIR on its basis was filed at sector 29 police station on Friday under section 420 (fraud) of the IPC and the IT Act. (A copy of the FIR is with HT)

Kumar, in the complaint, mentioned that an internal investigation revealed that the customers were present at their respective locations in India while disputed transactions happened from ATMs located in other parts of the country. “This leads us to believe that customer call data have got compromised and duplicate cards were prepared fraudulently and were misused” read the FIR.

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The complaint mentioned that an internal investigation carried out in this matter revealed that a unit at Sector 29 Gurgaon and a unit at Golf Course Road Sector 43 were the common point of purchase in all the card details. It was expected that both the “above maintained establishments could be a point of compromise from where the genuine customer card data might have got compromised”.

In the complaint, Kumar said that there is suspicion that there could be more cases of similar nature. The complaint has not mentioned exact time duration when the fraud took place.

Inspector Rahul Dev, SHO Sector 29 police station, said an FIR was filed after receiving the complaint and the matter has been referred to the ATM cell of the police.

An HDFC bank spokesperson said, “Our investigation suggests that two merchant establishments could be the possible points of compromise. We have asked the police to investigate further.”