YES Bank would on Monday offer an explanation to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) detailing the circumstances that led to a cyber fraud involving one of its customers’ bank account, sources in the central bank said.
Ankur Korane, a customer at YES Bank’s Mulund branch, had claimed Rs 1 crore had been stolen from his bank account. The money was transferred from his account through the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system.
RTGS is an online system that allows high-value money transfer between accounts. The transfer of funds is real-time and the beneficiaries are alerted about the transaction via email notifications.
Korane had filed a first information report (FIR) with the police and a case had been registered for cheating and impersonation. Media reports claimed the case would be transferred to the cyber-crime cell and the economic offences wing of the Mumbai Police.
Rana Kapoor, founder, managing director and chief executive of YES Bank, confirmed the bank was probing the incident. “We are probing and will (provide) suitable answers by February 4,” Kapoor said in a text reply while responding to a query on whether RBI had sought an explanation from the bank on this case.
It is learnt the bank had stopped fund transfer from Korane’s account when he alerted the private lender about the unauthorised transactions. The money was transferred to different accounts through a number of transactions. One of the beneficiary accounts was with another branch of YES Bank.
There were two layers of security check on Korane’s account. Fund transfer from that account required a ‘maker’ or initiator and the transaction had to be approved by a ‘checker’.
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“These things do not happen unless there is a grave lapse or negligence on the part of the customer,” a banker said, requesting anonymity.
Most YES Bank officials were not willing to comment, as police was investigating the case. The bank was “extending all necessary cooperation” a spokesperson of the bank said without offering further details.
This is the second instance of a cyber crime involving theft of money from bank accounts in recent weeks. In January, 2013 media reports claimed the economic offences wing of the Delhi Oolice arrested two persons for siphoning money from bank accounts of several people through net banking.
One arrested
The Mumbai Police on Saturday arrested one Troy Parera, a resident of Vasai, from Borivali, and seized Rs 30 lakh from his account. He had been sent to police custody till February 9, police sources said. A total Rs 54 lakh have been seized in the cyber-fraud case so far.