In an effort to protect people from financial frauds, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today advised banks to be vigilant against transactions related to various money schemes, including cheap funding programmes and lotteries.
There has been a spate of fictitious offers of cheap funds in recent times from the fraudsters through letters, e-mails, mobile phones, SMS and so on, the RBI said in a statement today.
It said there have even been communications to targetted people on fake RBI letterheads, purportedly signed by its top executives/senior officials.
"Many residents have been victims of such teasing offers and lost huge money in the process," the central bank said, adding that fraudsters are seeking money from the gullible people, under different heads, such as, processing/transaction fees, tax clearance/conversion charges and clearing fees.
The victims of the fraud have also been persuaded to deposit the amount in accounts with banks in India, and such amounts have been withdrawn immediately.
It is also observed that multiple accounts are being opened in the name of individuals or proprietary concerns, at different bank branches for collecting the transaction charges.
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The RBI said that banks are, therefore, "advised to exercise due caution and to be extra vigilant while opening or allowing transactions in such accounts".
It also clarified that any person resident in India collecting and remitting such payments directly or indirectly outside the country would be violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and other rules under Anti Money Laundering (AML) standards.