Apex consumer court tells SBI Cards to pay Gurgaon woman Rs 47,000 lost in cyber theft

New Delhi: A woman from Gurgaon who fell victim to cyber theft and lost Rs 47,946 in a transaction illegally carried out using her international credit card has got relief from the National Consumer Commission which has directed the card issuer, SBI Cards, to pay her the swindled amount.

National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission Presiding Member Inder Jit Singh said, “In our view, no liability can be fastened on to Durga Chauhan, complainant, for the transaction in question and SBI Cards has to bear the liability with respect to the transaction in question.”

Referring to Chauhan’s plea that she did not receive an OTP for the unauthorised transaction and that she promptly reported it as fraudulent, got the card blocked and subsequently raised a dispute, the National Consumer Commission said: “The RBI guidelines state that even when there is a third party breach where deficiency lies neither with the Bank nor with the customer but lies elsewhere in the system, and the customer notifies the Bank within three working days of receiving the communication from the Bank regarding the unauthorised transaction, there will be a zero liability of the customer.”

In her complaint, Chauhan said that her international credit card was illegally used by unknown fraudsters in 2017 for an international transaction of USD 700 (Rs 47,946.55) at “Paypal Keanneswart”.

She said though she received an SMS on her registered mobile phone intimating her about the transaction, no OTP was received on the phone seeking permission to authorise the transaction.

The National Consumer Commission, in its recent verdict, said, “On a bare perusal of the transaction, as supplied by the merchant, would reveal that the said transaction could not have been done by Chauhan as the said transaction pertains to some donation to ‘Kerrie Anne Swartz’ with whom she has no relation whatsoever, and is clear that the card has been misused in some online transaction which is on account of a security lapse on behalf of SBI Cards which has compromised the security of the credit card resulting in the misuse of her card.”

A lawyer said SBI Cards now has the option of challenging the National Consumer Commission’s verdict in the Supreme Court.

Earlier, the Apex Consumer Court upheld the findings of the State Consumer Commission and the District Court which allowed Chauhan’s complaint and directed SBI Cards to credit to her bank account the amount of Rs.47,946.55 swindled by fraudsters.

Offering relief to Chauhan, the National Consumer Commission relied upon RBI guidelines that shield a consumer from loss in case of alleged unauthorised transactions.

The Apex Consumer Court noted, in case of an unauthorised transaction, a customer's entitlement to zero liability shall arise if third party breach where the deficiency lies neither with the bank nor with the customer but lies elsewhere in the system, and the customer notifies the bank within three working days of receiving the communication from the bank regarding the unauthorised transaction.