The banking division of the Finance Ministry has received notices about five cases at two public sector banks where money was fraudulently withdrawn from customers’ Aadhaar-linked accounts, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

There were four such instances at the Andhra Bank, where Rs 4,20,098 was withdrawn from customers’ accounts without their knowledge, while Rs 1,21,500 was taken out of an account in the Syndicate Bank, The Indian Express reported on Friday. The money was later returned to the customers.

Advertisement

Jaitley said that the ministry has received 20 complaints, totalling Rs 7.65 lakh, since 2015 about frauds connected to Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. The Indian Overseas Bank reported the maximum of 15 cases, where Rs 5.89 lakh was withdrawn. Two cases were reported from the State Bank of India, where Rs 80,500 was siphoned off, and Rs 95,250 was withdrawn from an account at UCO Bank.

Customers have no liability in cases of a breach and if “the deficiency lies neither with the bank nor with the customer and the customer notifies the bank within three working days of receiving the communication from the bank regarding the unauthorised transaction,” the finance minister told the Lower House, citing a Reserve Bank of India circular from July 6, 2017.

After that, the bank would credit the amount involved in the unauthorised transaction to the customer’s account within 10 working days “from the date of such notification”, he added.

An unidentified official at the Unique Identification Authority of India told The Indian Express there had been no breach of data at the agency’s end. “These cases of fraudulent withdrawal are more in the nature of online banking frauds wherein gullible customers happen to share their confidential details with fraudsters over the phone or internet,” the official added.