Mumbai waiter uses customer’s debit card PIN number to steal Rs 50,000

Even as the RBI made it mandatory for customers to punch in their personal identification number, while using debit cards, police arrested an employee of an upscale restaurant for managing to withdraw cash from a customer's account after he forgot his debit card at the cash counter.

Even as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made it mandatory for customers to punch in their personal identification number (PIN) while using debit cards, criminals have found a way to sabotage the latest security feature.

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In a first such incident of abuse of the provision, police arrested an employee of an upscale restaurant for withdrawing Rs 50,000 from the account of Murtuza Vahanvati who had forgotten his debit card at the cash counter after paying the bill.

Suryakant Sadashiv Acharya, 28, who had been working at Moshe’s for a month, has been arrested.On January 18, Vahanvati paid Rs 671 using his ATM card.

"Vahanvati keyed in the number in front of Acharya. Later, Acharya gave an acknowledgement receipt and kept the card inside the bill folder," said Sanjay Chavan, sub-inspector, Cuffe Parade police station.

"At 12.40am, Acharya withdrew the money from a nearby ATM kiosk. Vahanvati realized his card has been misused on receiving a text message on his phone," another officer said.