State Bank of India Credit Card Complaints - FRAUD

FRAUD

This article is about the one which I read when I surfing through the details of fraud and the information breach that is happening at Banks and the kind of information misuse happening in places where we place our trust. I do present the entire bitter experience a lady has undergone.

I am working in one of the Tata companies and that's how I received my Tata SBI credit card a few years ago. Today I writing in because I am an employee at 'a' particular company but only to tell you my story in brief and my experience with the SBI credit card.

The trust and faith I put in the name - TATA and State Bank of India is immense. There couldn't have been a more perfect combination to establish trust and credibility. However, this morning Feb 22, 2010 was an absolute shock and horrifying episode for me. I got a call from 0124 3992391 saying the below-

"Hi Ma'am, we are calling from the Income Tax Department - verification unit and we would like to verify your contact details". I was caught in the middle of something at my workplace and I politely asked what was this regarding to which the guy at the other end said " we are calling from the Income Tax Department, your address details are getting 'kharab' which means spoilt and hence we need to update it. I wasn't quite sure about what was happening but on insisting thought the financial year is coming to an end and maybe Income Tax Department - Government of India needs these details. I updated my address with this guy on the phone and gave the guy my current address, when he asked for a phone number, an alternate number I was going to give my mother's but then decided to give my office number.

For some strange reason I felt that there was something amiss as I am an individual who has been dealing and handling my IT stuff through my office (which of course is reputed and managed with expertise). I decided to ask the guy some details saying where are you calling from in Income Tax etc etc. to which he started floundering and hung up. I called the guy back as I had his number on my mobile. When I asked which office is this and the guy who received the phone asked - Is this Ms XXX

Moreover, this particular number was called back on by a colleague of mine and when the person received the call on asking why he said he was from the Icome Tax Department, he said " madam humne jooth bola, main apko bata rahan huin, ye hamara kaam hain". Now, you can get all the call logs between me and this number. There were a total of 2 calls I made this morning and they called me 3 times.

I knew immediately that this was a case of fraud. These guys were calling on behalf of SBI and saying they are calling from Income Tax Department. This is the highest amount of breach of personal details/private information.

Last month when I wanted to write a cheque for almost 20,000 to pay SBI, instead of writing January (01), I wrote February (02). I didn't know this till I started getting calls from SBI. When I explained that I had put in the cheque and gave them details, they were relieved at every call but never stopped calling me. I decided to call the SBI call centre myself and questioned why they are calling me to which they said - No payment is received BUT at the same time acknowledged that they have a cheque dated Feb. for Rs 19,586. Now they know that as - as of today the payment has gone through and SBI received the payment. I got a mobile SMS confirming that.

Even if I ignore the number of calls I got harassing me for the payment, my biggest problem is the call which was made today. Government of India call - Income Tax Department calling me for some verification!!!!!! This is unacceptable and should be dealt with absolute severity!!!!!!! It's a 'FRAUD' of the first order and there is no denying that. It has completely shattered the faith I had in this collaboration.

I have called up the call centre and spoken to some Prashant and Kaustabh Banerjee (Manager) who confirmed that the call was made from one of the floors in Gurgaon and he is looking into it and that it will be taken seriously..basically all the things you say to your customer when they are annoyed at the other end. While I was in chat with the SBI call centre, another call came from 0124 3992391 (I picked it up as Prashant the SBI associate asked me to) and the person who spoke at the other end sounded like a Haryanvi criminal. I am using these words not out of bias but any associate who loses his/her tone of politeness is not fit to be doing that job (especially when I was just struggling to find out who they were). Just to let you know this particular call was just made to ask me " Kya aap hamain batayangi kya hua" when I asked which company are you calling from he said " aapko batana hain ki nahi". I said you should ask your employee to which he said "humne Abhiskek is baath kari, he said he called from Income Tax Department'. I asked him to hang up and he just banged the phone.

I feel at loss. I have given my private information to a company that has no control over its processes. I feel it was a total Quality Control breach too.