Aggressive marketing policies of banks lead to credit card frauds: Expert

The increasing instances of cyber crime and credit card frauds have become a cause of concern for banks in the city as well as the Pune cyber crime cell.
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GOL MAAL HAI: According to government's statistics, an overall fraud worth Rs 6.54 crore was committed in April and December 2008

Insider hand

And according to Sudam Choure, a cyber expert and president of IT/ITeS Association, the rise in crime is due to the misuse of details by the 'insiders' in private banks and the aggressive marketing policies that these banks pursue.

"Bank agents that indulge in belligerent marketing of credit cards tend to overlook safety measures. Besides, they usually don't bother about whom they are issuing the card and whether the credit limit they are offering is reasonable," Choure said.

Choure added that even if one is eligible to a credit limit of Rs 50,000, the agents to lure the customer, offer higher credit limits.
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"Even if a person uses his credit card quite often, there's still a substantial credit limit that remains unutilised. This can be misused if the card is lost," he said, adding that this practice needs to be checked.
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According to Choure, the biggest threat is from bank employees. "These agents are usually on contract and know a lot more than they ought to.

Besides, there is a connivance angle that the police is investigating," said Choure who's also the coordinator of Pune police's cyber cell.
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Fraud on the cards
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Earlier this week, Shakeel Ahmed, central minister of state home affairs, said in the Parliament that ICICI bank was leading in cases of credit card frauds.

He said that the bank had reported to the RBI that there had been around 8,000 economic offences between April and November 2008 amounting to a fraud of more than Rs 11 crore.

Apart from ICICI, American Express and HDFC have reported 703 and 2,484 cases losing Rs 6 crore and Rs 4.9 crore respectively.

What's more, even Citi Bank, Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank have respectively made losses of Rs 4.73 crore, Rs 2.39 crore, and Rs 2.09 crore.

According to government's statistics, an overall fraud worth Rs 6.54 crore was committed during April and December 2008. But in contrast, banks like the IDBI, Canara Bank and Indian Overseas Bank haven't reported even a single crime.