Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru (RJP)

Bengaluru, Dec 26: From now it will become tougher for fraudsters to steal money from anybody’s bank account. Previously they would just transfer money to their accounts without any problems. Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has made it compulsory for banks to contact the customer through the phone and verify about the transfer.

The cyber crime department of the CID has written email notices to the bank managements in the state to follow the new directive in order to put a brake to the internet money transfer thefts.

The fraudsters in the recent past have made transfers worth in crores after gaining access to the email accounts of bank customers. Once the fraudsters find more information regarding the bank accounts in the email accounts which the hack, then they transfer the amount electronically to their accounts.

The bankers seldom contact the bank customers to verify the transfers as they are not obliged to do so by any law. But now the bank officials have to contact the bank customers whenever they see any online transfers in their accounts.

Recently a police complaint was lodged at Manipal police station when a person living in Canada had lost more than Rs 1 crore from his account. Though the role of fraudsters in the transfers was unearthed by bank officials only, when the matter was discovered the victim has already lost a huge fortune. Till then there was no clue about the four transfers by a fraudster of Dubai origin to his accounts.

While the online thefts involving huge amounts are reported, most of the thefts are not reported at all. Hence the exact amount of the scam is not known.

Now with the new directive, things will not be easy for fraudsters. It will not be just a click of a mouse henceforth. It is obviously not a cake walk.