At 1.02 pm on Saturday, the 27th of Jan'18 I received a call from 7290860596 who identified herself as "Deepika" from State Bank of India saying that my SBI debit card is due for renewal and the new Chip Card with my Photo with validity upto 2039, with no annual charges, is being despatched. Caller has taken the details of my SBI debit card and said that the replacement card will be delivered through Blue Dart Courier ID X234062N on Monday, the 29th of Jan'18, and gave the courier contact number as 9223966666, Mr. Sridhar Kumar Reddy. She also confirmed that I would be receiving another call within half an hour for confirming the details to process and despatch the new Card.
Got a confirmation message from 8826274936 at 1.04 pm that the new card would be despatched on Monday.
At 1.10 pm, Received a message from 7290822891, that my current SBI Debit Card is deactivated. After receiving the new Photo Chip Card, to send an SMS "SWON ECOM 3979" to 9223966666 for activation of the new Card.
At 1.26 pm, got a call again from 7290860596 with the caller identifying herself as "Priya Sharma, SBI, Nariman Point Branch, employee code 123025, Branch Code 00300, Landline number 022-39020202. When I asked why are they calling from specific mobile numbers instead of the Land Line numbers, she said that they are working for State Bank of India and that RBI is overseeing this card replacement business and for authenticity they are giving their employee details, as above.
She said that the bank wants to convert the 700 reward points which are against my name into Rs. 7000 cash and would credit to my new Card account which would be received by me on 29th of Jan'18. She has asked me the details of OTP number for the subject transactions and when I contested on giving the OTP number, she has authenticated herself with her employee details as mentioned above and that there is no issue of revealing the OTP number as the card is already deactivated as per the message received earlier.
To further substantiate the authenticity, received messages from 7290819591 like "Dear Customer Your Card Promo Code is SNP104301, this code to be used for reward points within 2 months", "Congratulations! Your rewards point services is active in 5day", "Festive Cashbacks upto Rs. 100* on Prepaid VISA Card, Recharges & Bill Payments using your reward points on your card, App. Download Now>>http://m.sbi.co.in/MnqXQ8r0", "Success! we have loaded Rs. 10,000 in your SBI account through SBI card Charges: Rs. 0.00, ST: Rs. 0.00, SBC: Rs. 0.00. Your rewards balance is Rs. 10,000"
She was checking with me on the amount available in the SB account as a couple of OTP numbers there is a mismatch. Later I found that these are the transactions which were declined due to insufficient funds and I was charged by the Bank.
Then, she proceeded further saying that the Bank would be giving me a credit card with a credit limit of Rs. 1,0 Lakh, Rs. 50,000 Cash withdrawal Limit and Rs. 50,000 for purchase related transactions.
When I opposed that the credit limit of Rs. 1.0 Lakh is very less, she has asked me the credit card details with highest credit limit and has taken the Citibank Credit Card details. She further said to authenticate the credit card which would support the SBI Bank to issue a new credit card with Rs. 8.0 Lakh credit limit, she has taken the Citibank Credit Card details and OTP number.
Details of the transactions on SBI Debit card are attached in an Excel file.
Following are the details of transactions on Citibank Credit Card:
1. Reference No. 510056, Merchant-Airtel Money-Merchant Code 7200 2231 1003, Amount Rs. 7,000
2. Reference No. 826293, Merchant-Airtel Money-Merchant Code 7200 2231 1003, Amount Rs. 7,000
Further she asked if I would like to transfer the 25000 reward points against my Citibank card account to the new SBI Photo, Chip Debit Card with life time free. When I contested not to transfer the points and on further probing she said her name is "Sanjana Mishra" and that her name in Bank records is "Priya Sharma" as per the identification documents available.
Further, I am told that I would be getting a call in 30 minutes from the Credit Card department of State Bank of India.
My SBI Debit Card is actually due for replacement in Apr'18 and believed to be a genuine call from the bank.
In all, I have lost Rs. 31K from my SBI account (through Debit Card) and Rs. 14K from Citibank Credit Card.
When I called the numbers from which I received the messages, they turned out to be "switched off" or "Invalid" numbers.
Then I called SBI Contact Centre and Citibank Customer Service requesting for Blocking the Card and re-issuance of a fresh card.
Request concerned authorities to investigate into how the card due dates have landed into the hands of unscrupulous elements, if there is involvement of anybody from the Bank and recover the amount lost from the people involved as all the transactions are traceable by the investigative authorities.
V.V. Rajeswara Rao
