Army officer Defrauded: Is Internet Banking foolproof?

Net fraud: Rs 2L siphoned off from Army officer’s account
Shekhar Raj Shekhar, TNN | Jan 21, 2012, 04.52AM IST
NEW DELHI: A lieutenant colonel has alleged that around Rs 1.85 lakh were siphoned off from his account through internet banking. The victim, B B Sharan, 84, said he does not use make transactions through the internet. He further alleged that the accused got his number deactivated on the day of the incident, so that he could not get messages notifying him of the transaction.

Cops said the victim holds the account with a prominent bank. "On December 16, 2011, my mobile phone stopped showing any signal. When I contacted the service provider, he said my SIM card had been reported as lost. I got it changed, but the next day my phone again went kaput. On December 19, around 3.30pm I found my mobile had been activated on the new SIM card and I received an SMS about the transactions carried out on my account," said the victim, who is a resident of the Alaknanda area in south Delhi.

The victim became suspicious after reading the message and contacted the bank's customer-care department for details. "I was told that the money had been transferred through net banking to the account of one Niraj Singh on my instructions. I don't even know how to perform banking operations through the internet," the victim said. Sources said initial investigations point towards the involvement of an insider. He must have asked for his banking PIN through phone banking.

The victim told TOI: I went to the cops but they took no action on my complaint. It was only after the intervention of the addl. CP of the district that a case of cheating and fraud was registered at the CR Park police station."

The victim has requested the cops to investigate the matter and help him get his money back as he is using his savings for meeting his daily needs. Police sources said they are investigating how did the person find the victim's account numbers and the pin codes for these when the complainant himself doesn't know them.
Rs 2L siphoned off from Army officer’s account