Bank to compensate account holders if customers lose money due to online fraud

In today's age of technology, online hacking and fraud is a common phenomenon and a number of them often fall prey to fraud. Inspite, of lodging official complaints banks often fail to repay their customers the lost amount. Now in a major relief, the National Consumer Commission has released a new law stating  if hackers fraudulently withdraw money from a person's bank account, the bank, not the customer, would be responsible for the loss. Announcing their verdict in one of the case, the commission blamed the bank for a flaw within their system. The victim alleged that the money was withdrawn from her account by a hacker. The victim attributed the hacking to a flaw in the bank's electronic banking system. On this, the commission said in its decision that the bank could not present any such evidence, which showed that the credit card of the victim woman was stolen.  After which the commission ordered the bank to compensate the victim.

Observing that zero liability rests with the customer when the deficiency lies in the banking system the NCDRC directed the bank to reimburse around Rs 3 lakh fraudulently debited from a Thane woman's pre-paid forex card via over 29 transactions in 2008. Jesna Jose, the complainant who currently lives abroad, will also receive around Rs 80,000 in interest and compensation. The commission rejected the bank's claim that the woman had not taken care of the card and hence was liable for the fraud. Jose had submitted the complaint before the district consumer forum in 2009. She said she procured the card in 2007 and the fraud took place in 2008. Jose even registered a criminal complaint with Los Angeles police. The National Consumer Commission (NCC), while hearing the woman's complaint, directed a private bank to repay the stolen money along with the money spent on her mental distress and lawsuit, along with interest. 

Explaining  that in the annual report for the year 2017-18, the Reserve Bank of India had clarified who would be responsible in case of hacking. According to the RBI report, who will bear the loss will be decided by whose fault it is. As per RBI rules, if there is negligence or mistake on the part of the bank, the customer need not worry and the entire loss will be borne by the bank. On the other hand, if the fraud is due to the negligence of the customer, then the customer will have to suffer the loss. In a situation where it is neither the fault of the customer nor the fault of the bank, then if the customer lodges a complaint with the bank within 3 working days of the fraud, then the customer will not be responsible for the fraud. On the other hand, on filing a complaint in 4-7 days, the customer will get up to Rs. 5000-25000. But if the customer lodges a fraud complaint after 7 working days, it will depend on the policy of the bank in such cases.