“If consumer defaults in any of the banking rules then CIBIL report will never allow other banks to invest in them but the same is not the case for Banks carrying Fraud and Cheating” says Criminologist Snehil Dhall.

Mumbai: Fraud, Cheating and Malafide intensions of Tamilnad Mercantile (TMB) Bank continues to leave a victim in Jail since 3 years because TMC didn’t follow RTGS funds transfer documentation protocols; United Commercial (UCO) Bank gave their reputation and brand name to an Apartment and the Builder is yet to resolve property disputes worth Crores with many Local and NRI Consumers; American Express (Amex) Bank innovates “Policy on Phone” in which no documentations or physical contend is shared with the consumer and without his signature the policy funds are taken by Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI)  Bank  but the policy is never implemented. The Bank always pretends not to be in any fault and declares the consumer as wilful defaulter which in turn gets the consumer in a very bad financial record but government department never checks the same from consumer if it was their mistake or a fraud by the Bank. With anonymity, a RBI official told Dhall that RBI is always looking for such Banks and someone from the Ombudsman Department will call him for further details but he continues to wait. At this stage he has started training all the consumers to start filing complaints with the department for their relevant action since the banks have been too ignorant and the highest financial department seek the information against such banks from consumers. When asked about why Dhall didn’t approach this department of RBI earlier, he said “To learn who rules over you, we need to find out who we are not allowed to criticize and that is the logic which got me the details of RBI Ombudsman Department as even I wasn’t aware that any such department does exist.” The banks try their best to ignore all the complaints in which they may appear in major conflict and could face serious objection from RBI due to which the number of defaulters increases in the banks categorical list. 

Research Case Studies:

On the basis of only email confirmation, TMB transferred Rs. 1.25 Crores on the basis of four emails for four different amounts in four different cities and four different beneficiaries. The account holder’s accountant filed a FIR stating their email ID was hacked by 5 men but no one is actually focusing on the facts that the bank didn’t follow the RTGS documentation protocols for the transfer of these funds. In addition, as per reliable sources the accountant also mentioned in his court statement that the details and physical cheques mentioned in the email are still with them. The status of this case still remains prejudice while the victim is now facing mental disorder as he continues to live in the jail since past 3 years while other accuse and the bank are not prosecuted. The situation is exactly same for the property owners of UCO Bank’s recommended apartments and none of the accused or victims are in jail for now but NRI’s and locals feel terrible about their hard-earn income going for a toss. The case refers to property under the name of UCO Bank in which the fraud began when the same apartment was put on redevelopment. The Builder exploited the banks reputation for his marketing and publicity since he was allowed to sell these UCO Bank Apartments under his brand name which were previously meant only for staff quarters. While the same project is now undertaken by a different builder, the bank keeps themselves clean although their reputation was the main cause for consumers investing in the project. Many complaints against the builder were filed with the police & courts for all the fraud & cheating faced by consumers from the previous builder but they are ignored and the new builder has started selling the property to new customers. The conflict would have been dealt differently if it wasn’t a banks name involved for this redevelopment project. Nevertheless, UCO Bank has shown no interest in this case for their reputation and platform being used for such fraud activities.

In a similar pattern American Express also carried their organized crime in which they confirmed ICICI Lombard Insurance on the basis of phone confirmation but the policy was never implemented even after taking the entire policy funds upfront. As per their ‘Policy on Phone’ product the consumer doesn’t have to sign any documents and just give a confirmation on the phone which will have the policy implemented. The platform of American Express is used for selling the insurance policy of ICICI Bank in which the insurance company takes the entire amount from the credit card with a confirmation of having this policy cancelled anytime the consumer wants. The policy was neither implemented nor cancelled after consumer’s direction, whereas, he was forced to pay the monthly instalments which he has now stopped with a condition to the bank of resolving his complaint. The bank’s recovery department gives one call after 6 months and the bank never responds after getting a reply from the consumer to first resolve the complaint and then call back. The consumer has approached almost all the departments of entire financial industry while his CIBIL Records are now shown extremely bad for the fraud, cheating, and breach of trust committed by American Express. The consumer adamantly wishes to observe the level of organized crime committed by the banks and other departments regardless of never being eligible for any financial support that he may possible get from any financial department with the kind of CIBIL Records.