Breach of trust

City-based charitable trust duped 134 bank customers of over Rs 15 cr by making 995 illegal online transactions using their credit cards

City-based charitable trust duped 134 bank customers of over Rs 15 cr by making 995 illegal online transactions using their credit cards

A city-based bank has filed a complaint against a city-based charitable trust for fraudulently making online transactions worth Rs 15.6 crore within four months.

The fraud came to light when bank officials started receiving complaints from around 134 customers, alleging that fraudulent online transactions were made using their cards.


Regina Seelan the founder of the Salve Regina Charitable Trust being felicitated during a function

After verification, the bank officials told them that the transactions were a donation to a charitable trust, to which, the customers replied that they have not made any donations to any trust and the transactions were a fraud.

Based on the information, Maria Ruben, legal officer, ICICI bank, has filed a complaint with the cyber crime police.

Ruben said that Salve Regina Charitable Trust, which has a registered office at Kalyan Nagar, had approached the bank's Indiranagar branch with a request of setting up an electronic payment gateway banking facility to seek payments and donations from philanthropists for various charitable works.

Since it was for a social cause, the bank readily agreed and set up the facility on its official website, allowing them to accept payments through the Internet.

However, between July 1 and August 13, the trust has made 995 transactions and swiped Rs 15,68,53,627 from various credit and debit cards.

The bank's legal department tried to contact the trust to cross check the transactions, but the trust members did not cooperate.

The trust is headed by Regina Seelan and 25 others, including her relatives and friends. All trustees live in Bangalore, Ruben told the police.

Based on the complaint, the cyber crime investigators have issued a search warrant against the IT company that developed the website for the trust to check the fraudulent transactions.
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They have also sealed the offices of the trust. The accused are absconding.