Now Reading: Consumer commission orders ICICI Bank to refund Rs 5.18 lakh scam loss
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Consumer commission orders ICICI Bank to refund Rs 5.18 lakh scam loss
The Nagpur District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered ICICI Bank to refund Rs 5,18,437, with 9% annual interest, to a woman who lost nearly Rs 6.93 lakh in a FedEx parcel…
The Story in Brief
The Nagpur District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered ICICI Bank to refund Rs 5,18,437, with 9% annual interest, to a woman who lost nearly Rs 6.93 lakh in a FedEx parcel scam. The commission also awarded Rs 25,000 for mental and physical distress and Rs 10,000 in legal costs. The woman made four transfers after callers threatened her with police action over a fictitious parcel. ICICI Bank argued that she authorised the payments through OTPs. The commission found that the beneficiary account showed unusually high activity, including transactions worth about Rs 2.84 crore in January 2023, despite limited activity in other months.
The bank had initially issued a temporary credit, then reversed it. The Banking Ombudsman had earlier directed a credit of about Rs 1.75 lakh. Livemint, citing The Economic Times, reported the commission’s order but said it could not independently verify the report.
The Indian Opinion
The lazy claim that an OTP automatically ends a bank’s responsibility is as misleading as saying every authorised payment deserves a refund. The ruling turns on the beneficiary account’s sharp mismatch between its declared business profile and January transactions, not on a blanket guarantee for careless transfers. Banks need systems that flag such patterns, while customers must report fraud quickly. The final test is whether higher forums uphold the commission’s finding and the full Rs 5.18 lakh award.
Source: livemint.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
