The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Incredible ease with which the crime is committed

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Sunday, Jun 01, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Incredible ease with which the crime is committed

R. Sujatha

Fraudsters exploit banks’ practice of outsourcing operations

The groups had faked identity proof, salary certificates and driving licence to procure cards
There are a lot of loopholes as a junior level executive of the scrutinising agency approves sanction of cards

CHENNAI: The arrest of four persons on Thursday on charges of cheating private banks by using fake salary certificates, identity cards and driving licences for obtaining credit cards has, once again, turned the spotlight on the ease with which banks are targeted.

Of the four arrested, one was an MCA student while the rest had passed Class XII. In another case, in which seven persons were arrested on Friday last, the leader of the gang hailed from a poor background and had come to the city to make quick money. In both the cases, the groups had faked identity proof, salary certificates and driving licence to procure credit cards.

Central Crime Branch police say such frauds are easy to carry out as the banks outsource 75 per cent of their operations.

“There are a lot of loopholes as all scrutiny during sanctioning is done by third party and a junior level executive of the scrutinising agency approves sanction of the cards.” The salaries of such executives is only Rs.2,000 or Rs.3,000.

The CCB police have classified credit card frauds into five categories: at the application stage, misuse of lost or stolen cards, counterfeiting of international cards, intercepting mail containing the cards, and impersonation. The most serious is the fraud that takes place during the application stage, at which the culprit uses fake identity to procure a card. In the case of lost/stolen cards, the thief misuses them.

Since international counterfeiting is not easy, such cases are still rare in the city, a CCB officer said. Sometimes the mail sent by the bank is intercepted and the card is misused.

There have also been instances of fraudsters impersonating original owners of credit cards and seeking address change. In a recent case, in which seven persons were arrested, the accused collected details of the card owners, prepared fake documents using the details, presented them to the bank and received new cards.

“We have pointed out the pitfalls [to the banks] in allowing agencies to carry out confidential checks. Banks can open a credit card account on the lines of a savings bank account. Cards should be issued only after the bank manager meets the person at least once,” the senior police officer said.

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