Cards, net banking-related frauds dip 6% to 14,824 in 2016

Number of frauds related to credit cards saw a 23.5 per cent decline to 7,751 cases in 2016

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The number of fraud cases related to credit/debit cards and Internet banking has come down by about 6 per cent to 14,824 in 2016 from 15,733 a year ago, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The amount involved in these frauds also saw a 3.3 per cent year-on-year reduction in 2016 to Rs 77.79 crore from Rs 80.48 crore in 2015, Minister of State for Electronics and IT P P Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Citing information from the Reserve Bank, the minister said 77 cases of Internet banking-related frauds were reported involving Rs 2.1 crore in 2016, up over 45 per cent from 2015 when 53 cases involving Rs 5.5 crore were reported.

Similarly, ATM/debit card-related frauds saw a 26 per cent rise with 6,996 cases (involving Rs 41.64 crore) were reported in 2016 as compared to 5,546 cases (Rs 26.47 crore) in the previous year.

The number of frauds related to credit cards, however, saw a 23.5 per cent decline to 7,751 cases involving Rs 33.97 crore in 2016 from 10,134 cases for Rs 48.48 crore in the previous year, he said.

He added the RBI had, in a circular dated June 2, 2016 on Cyber Security Framework in Banks, advised banks to report all unusual cyber security incidents to it within two-six hours of detection.

The circular states that in cases where the branch is convinced that an irregularity/fraud has been committed by its staff towards any constituent, the branch should at once acknowledge its liability and pay the just claim.

In cases where banks are at fault, they should compensate customers without demur, it adds.

"In cases where neither the bank is at fault nor the customer is at fault but the fault lies elsewhere in the system, then also the banks should compensate the customers (up to a limit) as part of a Board approved customer relations policy," the circular states.

The government has been taking a number of steps to push for adoption of digital payment methods in the country, especially after its move to demonetise high-denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

The minister said with the proliferation of IT and related services, there is a rise in number of cyber security incidents in the country, like elsewhere in the world.

"As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 44,679, 49,455 and 50,362 cyber security incidents were observed during the year 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively," he added.

The types of cyber security incidents include phishing, scanning/probing, website intrusions and defacements, virus/malicious code, Denial of Service attacks etc.

Over a period of time, the nature and pattern of incidents are becoming more sophisticated and complex, he said.

Responding to a separate query, Chaudhary said a total of 1,600 and 3,383 cases were registered under cyber fraud using computer as a medium/target during 2014 and 2015, respectively according to National Crime Records Bureau data.