Our family have had all our bank accounts with HDFC Bank for 9 years . We are so called preferred customers . In 2002 my father, a senior citizen was persuaded by the " Relationship Manager " to takea net banking password to check his balance and transactions( so that he would not repeatedly come to the branch).
In April 2008 1.6 lakhs suddenly disappeared from his account . Apparently his password had been compromised, how or when we do not know .
The money had been transferred online to a HDFC credit card account, and the card holder is absconding and untraceble and the card is fully drawn . The Bank refuses to take any liability .
Their security has been lax since ICICI and citi bank have a two tier security for fund transfers and a PIN is system generated and SMS ed to the customers mobile, and only after reading and entering that PIN the transaction should take place .
Since my father had never done any fund transfers ever online, and since the amount was large, the system should have raised some red flags and a manual check could have been done .
Many other account holders in HDFC bank have also lost money .
I suggest all net banking customers of HDFC Bank be very very careful .