Recovery Fraud staged by HDFC agents
Dear Sir,
I would like to bring to your kind notice about a fraud, staged by the representatives of HDFC bank, of which I have been a victim.
On June 19th 2010, at around 1230hrs, I got a call from +919289737984, stating that he was a Sub Inspector from Delhi Police, calling from Delhi Police Headquarters. He enquired about my old residential address at Lucknow (A-21, Halwasiya's Utsav Enclave, Faizabad Road); and about Technomate, 226, Chandralok, Lucknow. I said that although my residential address was correct, but M/s Technomate was my brother-in-law, Mr. Pradeep Bhatnagar's firm and I was not a part of it.
He said that a Non-bailable Warrant No. NBW 234/2010 has been issued in my name by Hon'ble Delhi High Court and would be executed by 1315hrs, with police being sent to Gurgaon (my current city of residence).
I asked him as to what charges have been labelled against me and who was the other party. He said that he was not sure as to who the party was. He gave me a contact no. 09871791350, which he said was of Mr. Naresh Choudhary, the advocate who was representing the second party. I called Mr. Naresh Choudhary, who said that he had never heard of me, but then he asked for the warrant no. When I gave him the no., he said that since he is a public prosecuter and is representing the second party, he would not be able to help me. Upon repeated requests, he said that he was representing HDFC Bank and that I had used their credit card with an outstanding due of Rupees Sixty Three Thousand One Hundred Ninety Four only (Rs.63,194/-). I was pretty amazed and astonished, and informed him that I had never used the said card nor had ever applied/received it. I also informed him that I was never served any notice nor had been sent any outstanding statement on my email 'bhatnagarsandeep@indiatimes.com', duly registered (as per Mr. Choudhary) against the said card. He said that he cannot do anything about that. He however advised that if the second party (HDFC Bank) withdraws the case against me, the issue would be resolved. He then gave me the contact no. 09654771493 of Mr. Akhilesh Kumar Sharma, National Legal and Accounts Manager working with HDFC.
I immediately called Mr. Akhilesh Kr. Sharma on the contact no. provided. He asked me for my Date of Birth and then confirmed my details. He said that it was true that an outstanding was there against the credit card no. 5176 3510 0277 2550 which was issued in my name. I asked him as to why was I never informed about the outstanding in my email which was in my details. He said that it was the job of the local branch to do that and that he was ignorant about that. He further said that in order to avoid the execution of the NBW, the amount needs to be deposited latest by 1415hrs in any HDFC branch. He said that he would ask the advocate to get the execution deferred for that time. I informed him that I had never received/used the said card. He said that the priority should be to get the case withdrawn by depositing the said amount within stipulated time. The issue as to who received or used it, could be dealt later.
Under the pressure created by the representatives of HDFC bank; an assurance from Mr. Sharma to investigate the matter later and to avoid any harassment by the police, I decided to deposit the said amount in the bank, although I had never owned that card.
I rushed to the closest branch of HDFC Bank at Bestech Square, Sushantlok II, Sector 57, Gurgaon - 122002. I reached there by 1355hrs and filled up the pay-in slip to deposit the cash. I received another call from Mr. Akhilesh Sharma saying that if the bank refuses to deposit the amount, owing to bank hours, today being a Saturday, he would talk to the Branch Manager to do the needful. While the cash was being deposited, the cashier asked for my PAN Card and also as to what type of credit card was it. I gave her the copy of my PAN card and since Mr. Sharma was on the phone with me, I asked him about the card type. He said that it was a Platinum card. When the cashier checked the details of the card using Platinum as an option, it said that it was an invalid card no. I verified the credit card no. again, which was found to be correct. Mr. Sharma, then said that he would callback within a few minutes. He asked for the name of the Branch Manager, which, as informed by the cashier, was communicated to him as Mr. Rajan Sharma. While we waited for the call, the branch manager received a call. The cashier went to the Manager’s room and then returned to her counter. She made the changes (suggested by the caller) and the card no. was verified with the transaction completed. I asked the cashier as to what was the cause of it not accepting the card no., to which she said that it was a Silver card AND NOT PLATINUM. The cash was deposited with transaction id 67 on June 19th 2010. I asked Mr. Sharma whether I would be receiving any document stating that there are no dues pending and whether he would be helping me further in getting the culprit to book. He said that he would be sending me the email in an hour stating that there are no dues pending against me. He further said that he would be sending his personal email id also on which he could be contacted later also. He said that he was rushing to Chennai and would talk later.
After the cash was deposited, I tried calling Mr. Akhilesh Sharma, Mr. Naresh Choudhary and the sub-inspector, who had initially called me. For the SI, the phone no. is switched off; for Mr. Choudhary, the no. does not exist and for Mr. Sharma, the call immediately disconnects without going through. Months have passed since then and I am yet to receive any email from Mr. Sharma.
It seems that I have been duped of my hard earned money by representatives of HDFC bank.
It is indeed astonishing that although the bank had my current contact no., which I have been using since last 3 yrs and my email address used since 1996-97, how come they never tried to contact me before June 19th?
On June 22nd, I filed a complaint with the Grievance Redressal Cell of HDFC Bank.
A few days later, one of the representatives of the HDFC Bank, Mr. Vivek Shukla, contacted me from 05223056245. He, along with, Mr. Manish Srivastava, another representative from the HDFC Bank reconfirmed my details and said that the card was received by some person (who was never known to me) and that payments have been received vide cheques from PNB and Bank of India. I informed them that I did had an account in PNB, but never in Bank of India. I asked for the cheque nos. vide which the payments have been received. To this they said that they would not be able to provide me the details. They further said that that they would be forwarding their report to the Head Office.
On July 12th I received a mail from Ms. Rajeswari Jayasekar, Asst. Vice President,
Service Quality - Credit Cards, HDFC, stating, “We regret to understand from the conversation regarding your documents stolen and misused. We request you to provide us the copy of the FIR filed to enable us investigate and assist you further in this regard”.
On July 16th, I replied to the her mail, “I fail to understand as to what was so complicated in my telephonic conversation with your bank representative. I had only mentioned that although my bonafides attached to the application MIGHT be genuine. I had absolutely no knowledge that they had been used to acquire a credit card. Had I known this before June 19th 2010, I would have taken appropriate action (including lodging FIR for the same).
Needless to say, that in today's world, it is not at all difficult to procure such documents/details/bonafides of any person. Newspapers are full of reports where such details were spilled by mere call center representatives. In this regard, I HAVE NOT SEEN (only heard) any of such documents attached to the application form of credit card of your bank.
Moreover, the claim that credit cards are ONLY handed over to the applicant by the courier services, is anything but true. Media is full of reports where credits cards were delivered to wrong hands and later misused. Bank employees/Courier companies have found to be hand-in-glove in such cases”.
On Aug 3rd, Priya L, Senior Manager - Customer Service, Credit Cards, HDFC, replied, “ Being fully sensitised to your comments expressed with regard to the credit card account, we have taken an indepth investigation and wish to share the following with you. We observe that the card account number 5176 xxxx xxxx 2550 was opened on 26/05/2005 basis the signed credit card application and documents (passport, Driving License, Pan card copy) received at our end. It is important to mention here that the signature on the application form matched with the documents that were submitted at the time of applying for a credit card.
Accordingly, the application was processed and the credit card was despatched and delivered at the mailing address mentioned in the application on 30/05/2005. We observe from the card account that the credit card was used for cash withdrawal/retail transactions since June'05. We take this opportunity to inform you that we were in receipt of cash payment towards the card outstanding.
We wish to confirm that the card statements were regularly despatched to your mailing address maintained in our records and we do not observe any mailers returned undelivered. We also observe that e-statement facility was registered on the card account during July'06 to your e-mail address: bhatnagarsandeep@indiatimes.com and and wish to confirm that our records do not indicate any estatement returned undelivered.
Further, we observe from our records that we we were in receipt of your signed letter requesting for change of address on the card account twice (first letter during August'05 and second letter during May'06). We affirm that the signatures affixed in these letters matched with the signature in the credit card application and with the other documents. Accordingly the address was updated on the card account and the correspondence was sent to the updated mailing address.
We take this opportunity to clarify that our records do not indicate receipt of any communication from your end claiming non receipt of statements/credit card or disputing the card outstanding.
We invite your attention to the security requirements which need to be observed by the cardmember as apprised in the cardusage guide, the relevant points of which is related below for ready reference:
The card member (Primary and Add-on) should:
• Not let anyone else use his / her card
• Take steps to protect his / her card from loss or theft and
• Notify the Bank once the cardmember becomes aware that his /her card has been lost or stolen, or has been used by someone else
• Not hand over the card to anyone even to those posing to be authorised by the Bank.
You will notice that the transaction has been incurred on the card account and the card was physically present at the time of transactions. We would like to clarify that any presence of the physical credit card in a transaction either indicates the cardholder participation in the said transaction or a probable compromise on the security requirement by the card holder. In view of the above, we are constrained to state that the outstanding became due and payable by you.
We take this opportunity to inform you that bank was not in receipt of regular payment towards the minimum amount due of your card statements since inception. Hence, bank charges as applicable was levied to your card account. Further, owing to continued non receipt of payment towards the card outstanding dues since October'06, the card account was invalidated from further usage on 06/12/2006.
We acknowledge receipt of your payment of Rs.63194.00 on 19/06/2010 and the same reflects in the statement dated 06/07/2010. We wish to inform you that your card account stands invalidated and there is no outstanding payable on your card account as on date”.
On Aug 12th, I replied, “There are 5 queries that need to be answered, ASAP :
1. Whom was the card delivered to?
2. Can I have the details of spendings from the said card?
3. Can I have the details of payments received?
4. If the card was not delivered to me, how could I apply for address change for the same?
5. I have not received any printed or e-statements. Kindly provide the details of the same.
I would like to have the scanned copies of the above documents”.
Not fully convinced with the replies, on Aug 27th I sent another email stating, “Referring to the details provided by you in last so many days, we are still skeptical about as to whom and where was the said card delivered to”.
The reply I received from Ms. Rajeswari Jayasekar on Aug 30th said, “As apprised in our earlier responses to you, we once again wish to clarify that application for credit card was processed basis your request and the card was delivered at your mailing address as updated in our records during May'05. We also wish to confirm that we would be unable to provide/share proof of delivery of the credit card, owing to the vintage of records.
Having said the above, we wish to re-affirm that your card account stands invalidated from further usage and there is no outstanding payable on your card account as on date post receipt of your payment of Rs.63194.00 towards your card dues”.
On Sep 4th, I replied that, “I wish to inform you that the card was not delivered to ME. I am not aware of the mailing address mentioned in the application. As per the rules, I believe, the card needs to be ONLY delivered to the applicant and not to someone else.
Further a name was mentioned by your investigation officer, to whom the card was delivered to. I do not recall the name, but the recepient was never known to me.
The last reply from Ms. Rajeswari Jayasekar again stated, “We once again take this opportunity to confirm that as per our records that credit card bearing number- XXXX XXXX XXXX 2550 was processed basis your request. Further the credit card was delivered at your mailing address as updated in our records during May'05. As apprised in our earlier responses to you, we wish to confirm that we would be unable to share the proof of delivery of the credit card as the same owing to the vintage of records.
Having explained the same, we wish to re-affirm that your card account stands invalidated from further usage and there is no outstanding payable on your card account as on date post receipt of your payment of Rs.63194.00 towards your card dues.
PLEA / REQUEST
Sir, I am a law-abiding citizen of India and it is my hard-earned money that is at stake. Had it not been the mental harassment and pressure (a mere idea of a policeman standing at the doorstep with an arrest warrant, sends shiver down my spine) mounted by the representatives of HDFC Bank on June 19th, I would have sought time to get into the details of the card. On assurance from Mr. Akhilesh Kumar Sharma, National Legal and Accounts Manager working with HDFC, that he would help me in getting the culprit brought to book and getting my money back, I was of the view that this matter would be expedited quickly. BUT the said Mr. Sharma, I believe only existed on that day.
Much time has passed since then, but I am yet to get my hard-earned money back.
I now request you, Sir, to kindly get this matter expedited at the earliest and relieve me of my anxiety, by getting my money back and getting duly compensated for the mental harassment and agony mounted on me by HDFC Bank.
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Originally Posted by SandeepB
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