Thief Steals Noida Woman¡¯s Wallet, And Steals Rs 1.5 Lakh From Cards With No OTP Or PIN

Travelling abroad is fun and amazing until you lose your wallet. And things take a far worse turn if some thief steals your hard-earned money not just from that wallet, but also your bank accounts. Something similar happened with Neha Chandra on her trip.

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Neha Chandra, who is based out of Noida, Uttar Pradesh was on a trip to Paris for celebrating New Year¡¯s. And while travelling through the metros of the French city, a thief stole her wallet. And within a matter of minutes, hackers manage to steal over 1.5 lakhs using her debit and credit cards -- without any OTP or ATM pin.

First reported by IANS, there were two transactions on her HDFC debit card for Rs 52,499 and Rs 44,544 respectively. The thief also transacted worth Rs 52,499 on the credit card -- all at the same merchant dubbed ASHANTI Paris 10/FR on December 31st.

As soon as she noticed the theft and deduction of amount from her accounts, she immediately got her cards blocked and shifted her remaining money into another account that was not connected to the cards, and lodged a complaint with authorities in France.

Neha in a conversation with IANS stated, "All the necessary information and paperwork required was done well within time as per the RBI guidelines (within one hour of the transaction happening, I blocked my card and within 12 hours, I sent all the paperwork to HDFC Bank)."

However, HDFC has been conducting an investigation of its own and has promised that her money is safe, with them intimating the affected once the investigation is fully complete -- as stated by an HDFC spokesperson -- however it has been nearly 20 days since the incident was first reported with the bank.

"I am yet to receive any amount from the bank despite following the RBI guidelines. I was even asked by the bank to get the FIR translated into English that will cost me Rs 8,000. Instead of reversing my stolen money, they are asking me to spend more." Neha further stated.

Reuters

As per RBI norms, the affected customer ahs a three-day-window to complete formalities in such a case, and once complete, the bank would reverse amount on the card within 10 working days.

In case you didn¡¯t know, conducting card transactions abroad don¡¯t need OTPs or PINs, and can easily be done with the card and CVV numbers. Thieves often also have access to compromised ATMs to change ATM pins to extract money from the account.

While travelling it's always safe to have a traveller¡¯s card linked to a separate account as even if that gets stolen, the rest of your money stays inaccessible to the thieves.