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28 March 2024

NRI Alert: Bank warns customers against ‘new ATM card’ fraud

Published
By VM Sathish

Officials of a leading Indian public sector bank and its subsidiaries, both regularly used by overseas Indian customers, have alerted customers to be vigilant about a new fraud involving ATM cards of existing customers.

The State Bank of India, the number one Indian public sector bank, is planning a merger with several subsidiary banks.

“NRIs and their families have to be alert about this new fraud in the name of SBI group merger,” an SBT officer stationed in the UAE told Emirates 24|7.

He said an alert has been issued by the bank to increase customer awareness

SBI and its subsidiaries have perhaps the largest Non-Resident Indian (NRI) customer base and many NRI families maintain an account with the bank.

State Bank of Travancore, for instance, one of the subsidiaries of SBI, has a huge deposit base from NRI customers from the Gulf.

The fraud is coming out of India, with some account holders getting calls from Indian metros informing them about the merger plan and as part of the merger plan, saying the bank plans to issue new ATM cards.

State Bank of India says this is not happening and fraudsters are looking to steal card numbers from customers.

In one case, a call recipient could even hear announcements like “next customer please”, to convince them that the caller is actually making the call from a bank office.

The bank has issued a public alert to its account holders, advising them not to share individual account details with any one online or through telephone.

“Some fraudsters, imposing as SBI officials from ATM/Card services are making hoax calls to our customers and asking for their confidential information such as ATM Card no. /ATM PIN/CVV no. This information is solely used to cheat the customers in the name of ATM card expiry renewal, data validation, job offers, prize, lottery winning and for other illicit purpose,” the bank said in a public alert.

“We advise that SBI NEVER makes phone calls, sends e-mails/SMS asking customers to disclose their personal or security information such as username, password, one time SMS password, Card/PIN/CVV no,” the alert added.

“Customers are advised in their own interest not to disclose any confidential information related to their Account no., ATM card, PIN, TPIN, CVV no. over phones/SMS/ e-mails, no matter how convincing / appealing such calls, mails are. These are attempts to fraudulently withdraw money from your accounts,” the alert added.