Axis bank is one of the fastest growing banks in India. Growth should always be accompanied with the responsibilities to make banking safer and easier for its customers. I have accounts with Axis Bank in India and I really regret having one now. Both my accounts were hacked between April 14th to April 20th 2010 on June 20th. When I tried logging in my account during the end of April, oblivious of the fact that the money has already been illegally taken out, I could not log in because the password was no longer valid. When I tried to complain about the locked account; it took almost 2 months for Axis bank to get me a new password – this clearly demonstrates that not only Axis Bank was aware that its system was hacked but it also failed in its duties to let the legal account owner made aware of the hack.
I want
Axis Bank to make my loss whole i.e. give my money back immediately, a sum total of Rs. 1,71,1000 ASAP while the bank can conduct the enquiry it wants. To all my readers, pls. read the chain of events and decide for yourself how pathetic is the customer service of one of the fastest growing bank in India.Feb 22nd 2011: I received an acknowlodgement letter from Mr. Gopalakrishnan, AGM in RBI acknowledging the receipt of my letter for appeal against the decision of Ombudsman. While the letter is dated Jan 20th, it took the letter more than a month to reach me. Hope RBI can also utilize email for a faster communication but it's better late than never. Now that I have an acknowledgement, I am sure some action will follow. I will wait for a couple of weeks more before I send a reminder to RBI again. You can read the acknowledgement letter from RBI below:
RBI Acknowledgement Letter for Appeal Against the Decision of Banking Ombudsman
Jan 12th to Feb 20th 2011: Waiting patiently to hear back from RBI, India. A couple of my friends suggested that I call them and request for information but I am sure the system in India works, it's just a little slow to feel comfortable.
Jan 11th 2011: After doing some research on the internet as to who could be the Apellate authority for the banking ombudsman order, I found that Dy Governor of RBI has been vested this power. I have made a point by point rebuttal of the points raised by Axis Bank and prayed to the Dy. Governor to provide me justice and ask Axis Bank to make my loss whole. You can read below point by point rebuttal of the comments made by Axis Bank to Banking Ombudsman and can decide for yourself how Axis Bank is trying to hide behind technicalities and playing all the tricks up their sleeve to present a one sided version of what actually happened.
Rebuttal of All Points of Axis Bank (Shame on Axis Bank)
I am just worried that I don't have the legal knowledge and might get confused and frustrated with the jargons. But I have promised to myself that I will seek every opportunity to fight this injustice with Axis Bank. Shame on you Axis Bank
Jan 10th 2011: Got a response from the Banking Ombudsman office (see the letter below) that he has closed the case. Banking Ombudsman Letter Closing the Complaint So frustrating and disappointing. He attached a letter from Axis Bank ( read below )based on which the case was closed. Obviously, Axis Bank gave a very twisted and generic response to the Banking Ombudsman original letter. I am really surprised that Banking Ombudsman can close the case without even giving me a chance to present my arguement against the points raised by Axis Bank. However, I am quite grateful to the office of Chief General Manager, Customer Service that helped me to get the Banking Ombudsman order in the first place otherwise, I would have assumed that my case is till pending with the Banking Ombudsman. In this age of facebook and Twitter, I am getting the order after 4 months. Somethings must change for the sake of justice.
Axis Bank Response to Banking Ombudsman
Jan 7th 2011: I have requested the office of BO Patna to send me a copy of their judgement. This is my third request to them. I have also written back to the office of Chief General Manager to help me get a copy of the judgement. This will atleast help me to find out what options I have now in case I have been denied justice by the Banking Ombudsman. I am eagerly waiting to see the order.
Jan 6th 2011: Against all odds, I got a response today from the office of Chief General Manager, Customer Service of RBI. It says that they cannot do anything as the Banking Ombudsman have passed the judgement on Sept 24 2010 and it not appealable in the banking system anymore. The letter suggested me to explore other means to recover my money. My question is when I am the victim of this elaborate fraud from Axis Bank then why the judgement of the Banking Ombudsman was not sent to me. How is any NRI expected to know such judgement if he/she is not sent any electronic copy?
Dec 26th 2010 : Sent the entire complaint to the office of Chief General Manager, Customer Service Department in RBI at Mumbai. Hope someone there picks up my complaint and bring a clousre for me. I am extremely frustrated at the lack of speed and urgency on part of RBI to resolve my case. If I don't get any response by Jan 3rd, I will send my compaint to Shri Kaza Sudhakar, CGM and Shri KC Chakrabarty, Dy Governor as suggested in one of the comments posted on my blog.
Dec 1st to Dec 25th: Not yet...sadly no response from the Banking Ombudsman office even after sending one more reminder. Does it need to take this much time to find out the facts and dispense justice? Why the people in power can't see the suffering and plea for a quick disposal of this case? Looks like me being stranded here in US is making it difficult for justice to be delivered to me in India. Read a comment from someone in my blog post to send the complaint to Chief General Manager and Deputy Governor in RBI in Mumbai that I will do now. Thank you for YenYen for showing some more direction to pursue this case.
Nov1st to Nov 30th: Sent a reminder to Banking Ombudsman but have not got any response yet. It is more than 4 months and I have not seen response yet from the Banking Ombudsman office. Does it take so much time to find out the details and provide justice?
September 16th till Oct 31st: Waiting for some response from the Banking Ombudsman office in reserve Bank of India in Patna where I have filed my complaint. Can anyone help me out so that I get my money back?
September 15th: Sent a reminder to the Banking Ombudsman in RBI, Patna.
August 6th till September 14th: Waiting for some update from the Banking Ombudsman office. Meanwhile, is there anything else that someone can suggest I do?
August 5th: I can't believe that the system works and works beautifully. I saw an email from the Ombusdman office. I received a letter (you can read the original letter below) that asked for information from Axis Bank and giving them time till Aug 14th to respond. Perfect! This has re-energized my effort to fight this out with Axis Bank. It's unbelievable but true that there is a system that can really ask some questions to the bank and they have to respond. My 2 cents - Never give up your right to fight even if your opponent is a considerable heavy weight like Axis Bank in this case.
Banking Ombudsman First Note to Axis Bank Asking for Information
July 27th to August 4th : Waiting for the Banking Ombudsman response to my complaint. Not yet sure if the online system was reliable enough for the complaint to reach the right person.However, I am listing the online Reserve Bank of India Banking Ombudsman complaint system web address for other's ready reference in such cases of gross negligience of banks in India.
July 26th : Lodged the complaint with Banking Ombudsman with Reserve Bank of India, Patna Branch through its online complaint system. It has been more than 30 days since I filed my complaint with the Axis Bank and I completely reject the bogus and stupid defense of Axis Bank in making my loss whole. Not only I would like to fight for my own money, I would also like the Axis Bank to change its internal circular that prohibits bank from reimbursing the legitimate customer for such kind of fraud. It is also quite interesting to read a comment from someone called “Manoj” who clearly writes on my blog about such incidents happening in Axis Bank and he himself has lost Rs. 1.6 lakhs. Manoj comments clearly points finger to Axis Bank internal controls.
July 13th to July 25th : I did receive a letter from Axis Bank, Ranchi Branch Head (see below) putting the blame squarely on my head suggesting that I might have shared the id and password to some one else resulting in this unauthorized transactions. I really pity the stand taken by the bank. Even a high school student will come up with a better defense than this.
Axis Bank Response to the Fraud
While I understand the predicament of the bank in acknowledging its flaws, security hole and most likely the organized hacking going on within the bank itself, it is foolish for the bank to take cover of its legal responsibilities with such ill advised response. I am sure the Axis Bank, Ranchi Branch Head – Mr. Kumar Manish is a sensible person but looks like his hands are tied by bank’s illegal internal circular. However, in the spirit of co-operation, I appeal to Axis Bank to find out the credentials of the persons who have taken the money out of my account and file police complaints against them. It is very easy for the bank to trace the people who took my money. Either they are genuine accounts in which case, Axis Bank can immediately file police complaints against them or they are bogus persons that points to bank complicity in this fraud.
July 7th to July 12th : can you believe? My response to CEO of Axis Bank has also been met with strong silence. What a way to respond to customer complaints? While this might be Axis Bank stand of keeping quiet to my complaints, I cannot be as passive like the Bank. Probably the next step is to go to Banking Ombudsman. Looks like the bank won't budge unless forced to do so by some regulatory authorities. What a shame...Never thought I was banking with such a heartless bank.
July 6th : Sent a complaint to CEO of Axis Bank, Mrs. Sikha Sharma with the hope that this issue will now get resolved. Let's see if this helps.
July 3rd to July 5th : Still no response. However, no response will not absolve bank of its responsibilities. This also shows the character or the lack of charcter of the bank. I plan now to write directly to the CEO of the Axis Bank and see if I can get a resolution. How come these banks with such horrible service can ever think of competing globally where the minimum norm in such cases is to first credit the account for the loss and then do an enquiry?
July 2nd : Sent a complaint letter to Consul General of India in San Francisco (read below)and requested that action be taken to make my loss whole.
Complaint Letter to Consular General India San Francisco
June 29th to July 1st : No response yet from the bank. Very frustrating. Happened to speak to Susanta Behara of Ranchi Branch while he was on vacation. He promised that he will look into the matter but still no response from the bank yet. Looks like Axis Bank is dragging its feet in owning up it's responsibility. However, no response even more than a week later is just poor customer service. Thumbs down to Axis Bank.
June 28th : Sent another letter to IBRM, NRI Cell, Ranchi Branch Head, Arup Dutta and others in Axis Bank giving details of fraud.
June 27th : Tried to look for an email ID for the CEO and other senior functionaries of the bank but nowhere on the website there is any listing of the Bank CEO. Can’t believe that Axis bank doesn’t provide the contact information of its management team including the CEO. Even a mom and pop shop now a days has better information available on their web site. Axis Bank web site sucks.
June 24th to June 26th : No response to my email. I am waiting for the bank to respond to my email complaint. In this era of facebook and Twitter, it seems like ages to wait for 3 days. Anyways, trying to keep my patience and frustration under control in anticipation of Axis Bank returning my money.
June 23rd : Came to know that the money was illegally taken out of my account by hacking into Axis Bank online banking system. I called Susanta Behra in Axis Bank branch in Ranchi, India where my account was opened. He advised to call the Mumbai office and talk to one person called Ashish. Called Ashish the same night and explained him what happened. He seems to be a nice guy and shared some details about the hackers and told me that the bank will get back to me for the next steps.
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5 comments:
It is really frustrating and I hope that something happens quickly to address your problem. While hacking is not something new and much like shop lifting for retailers, loss on account of hacking for online business has become a known pitfall. What really has frustrated me after reading your blog is that a leading bank has not "provisioned" for it and has no process to deal with it. Most of the banks do have risk evaluation and as a part of the mitigation strategy, the savings are indeed insured, so any such incident will not be a "loss" to bank, they have their own way to protect it. In "incredible" India, it is sad to note that there is no sensitivity or apathy towards customer's grievances, does not have a guidelines given to banks for dealing with such incidents. Now, what is the next level that you may approach to? RBI or NRI Ministry may be my suggestion. Also, try to lodge an FIR with police station in Ranchi under which this bank comes in. Also do they have any BBB kind of organization to help and protect consumers' interest? If yes, you may approach them as well. Point is that you have already "lost" what you had to, now try to turn all the stones you may think of. An eye-openor for all of us, and yes, India has not changed much!!
How interesting
Dear Raja,
You are not alone in this...I lost 1.6 lakhs after someone hacked into my account. The money went in packets of first Rs.2000 each to four accounts in Kolkata...then packets of Rs.38000 to the same accounts. That too all happened on one day withi a few hours. The accounts are surprisingly Axisbank accounts! After tranfferring to these accounts, the money was withdrawn at several ATMs that too same day! All very organised.
I had an informal advice from the IT expert at the Supt. of Police office at Kannur – this kind of transaction cannot be done without inside help i.e. from within Axisbank. This is a racket where bogus accounts are opened with the help of Axisbank staff who deliberately do not ask for proper identifications or knowingly enter bogus addresses. I am sure if Axisbank does an id check on the four accounts, they will draw a blank! Can you please confirm this? So how can anybody trust a Bank which facilitates opening of accounts to criminals without proper identifications and address checks?
I lodged a complaint, but the branch head merely issued a letter saying I'm responsible and that I must have givn my password to someone!!!
I think Axisbank needs to be isolated...if each one of us withdraw their money from them or close accounts, they'll wake up.
Regards
Manoj
Sorry to hear the agony you are going through. AXIS BANK IS A FRAUD BANK. I have had great experience with them and continue to have a wonderful experience with this Bank.
Do not rely on RBI Banking Ombudsman, as these folks work closely with Bank employees rather than customers. Lodge a police compliant and more over Axis Bank is taking too much lienancy on NRI's as you cannot go and file a complaint.
Send your Case No:cgmcsd@rbi.org.in
If you did not receive any response in a week .
Send to Deputy Governer : kcchakrabarty@rbi.org.in and then to :kazasudhakar@rbi.org.in
Babloo,
I still find it easier to say this than Uttam , because I am not used to.
Anyways , if you can mail me the details , I may try to take the opinion of my friends here in Kolkata . They are in Axis Bank and one of them is of 87 batch .
Ujjwal Sinha
98361 47400
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