In an important ruling amid surging digital financial fraud attacks, the Bombay HC sided with the customer protection norms. It directed Bank of Baroda to return Rs. 1.24 crore to the victim private firm that lost money in a SIM-swap case. The court stressed that if a consumer reports fraud promptly in time, “zero liability” is ruled, and the bank must reimburse the losses.
Private company reported the incident immediately
The order was given by a division bench of the HC, which included Justices Manjusha Deshpande and Bharati Dangre, when private company PNP Polytex (based in Mumbai) submitted a petition. Polytex alleged that Rs.1.24 crore had been stolen from its bank accounts illegally and without knowledge.
About court proceedings
As per the submissions to the court, the firm informed the bank soon after finding malicious transactions and asked the accounts to be frozen. The bank could only save Rs. 47.8 lakh, the remaining money was already stolen by the hackers. After this, the firm moved to HC for help.
Later, enquiry revealed that the scam was done using a SIM-swap tactic, where hackers get control of the target’s registered contact number. This lets the hackers intercept OTPs and do banking transactions without the account owner’s consent and knowledge. The high court found that the scam was done by third-parties, and showed no evidence of negligence on consumer’s end.
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This article has been indexed from CySecurity News – Latest Information Security and Hacking Incidents