The consumer court held the bank responsible for the losses incurred due to UPI fraud. After a five-year legal battle, the court's decision now requires the bank to pay the customer millions of rupees in damages.
Court's decision on UPI fraud
A Chandigarh resident is set to receive over ₹1.5 lakh from his bank. The case involves UPI fraud. The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered the bank to compensate customers for losses incurred due to unauthorized UPI transactions that occurred five years ago. Since the decision came five years later, interest at the rate of 9% has also been added to the refund.
According to a report in the Indian Express, the Chandigarh State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to refund the entire amount of Rs 99,940 in an unauthorized UPI fraud case from a customer's account, along with 9% interest per annum and compensation, taking the total refund to over Rs 1.5 lakh. This also includes Rs 10,000 towards compensation and legal expenses.
What is the matter?
The case dates back to 2021. According to the complainant, on July 20, 2021, a delivery agent approached him. He needed to return a parcel that had been delivered by mistake. The agent tricked him into asking for his bank details under the pretext of processing a refund. However, the complainant, acting tactfully, flatly refused to share his PIN. Despite this, he became a victim of fraud.
The next afternoon, he received alerts about five transactions from his account. This surprised him, as he had neither authorized them nor shared his UPI PIN or one-time password (OTP) with anyone. This raises the question: how did these unauthorized transactions occur?
Money started getting deducted from the account.
On July 21, 2021, at approximately 2:50 p.m., the customer received five account deduction alerts. These included three transactions of ₹25,060, one transaction of ₹24,560, and another transaction of ₹200. A total of ₹99,940 was debited from the account. The complainant immediately blocked his account and mobile number and informed the bank about the matter.
A complaint was also filed with the Chandigarh Police and Cyber Cell. The man stated that the refund process was not completed within 15 days of receiving approval from the head office. However, despite repeated visits and a reminder on February 9, 2022, the matter remained unresolved. Subsequently, he approached the Consumer Commission seeking relief.
