It was in the start of June that I received a few alerts on my mobile from SBI Credit Card about some transaction done by me. I was undergoing a full Management Training Program during that time and was amazed that I am getting alerts on transaction, which has never happened before and also that if I am in the training program, who is doing the transactions. After a few alerts it was clear that there is some fraud happening on my card & I received some 9-11 SMS alerts.
The very evening I wrote to SBI online help email id informing them about the alerts. No action was initiated from SBI on such a serious issue. The next day again a few alerts came – may be 2-3. Couple of days later, I got a call from the call centre of SBI Credit Card that there are fraud transactions happening in my card & they are blocking that card & issuing me a new one. The new card came very promptly; so did the statement. I was aghast to see almost 34 transactions amounting to approximately Rs 1.3 lakhs on my CC in a matter of 2-3 days. Then SBI CC call center started calling me and following up with me for payments in spite of informing them that I am out of town for personal reasons and requesting them not to disturb me for the next few days. Personal privacy didn’t matter to them, they wanted their payment. During this time a gentleman from SBI CC got in touch & explained to me that they know the problem & they were suspecting a merchandiser from where the frauds have happened.
I was finally told one day that I need to fill up a dispute form & fax it to their office (I guess it was a Chennai number).
In the meantime the calls from the back office continued for the payment & I had promptly made the payment for the valid transactions I had done. Even that took four days for the system in SBI CC to reflect & the back-office guys kept nagging me. In spite of innumerable follow ups, I have not been given any confirmation of the fax; during one of the follow-ups I got a response that Rs 1200 has been credited to my account, while the fraud transactions amounted to over Rs 1 lakh. If this was not a joke, there was no seriousness in which SBI CC was taking up this matter even after reporting over 34 fraud transactions & the details of which are known to them from the past 3 months.
Even after 90 days of my reporting on the fraud, SBI is yet to take any action and make arrangements to reverse the transactions on my statement. Also, there were cases when SBI CC had sent recovery agents to my house to collect the amount from me.
This action of SBI has left many a patrons of State Bank’s like me in the dark and shows the lackluster way of working from the Government owned banks on a serious issue like this.