I received a call from a landline phone starting with 0124- claiming themselves to be an agent of State Bank of India,offering a discount card for me as a new year compliment .The name of the vendor was not clear when they spoke to me ,but, subsequently understood that to be gifts8home.The said that discount card can be used for all purchases except for petrol.They verified all my personal details including my Mothers’ maiden Name.I totally believed them and somebody claimed to be their team leader gave me a lecture on how to have a control over all our expenses and finally said I am being given some gift vouchers from ZABONG.COM,PAIR OF SHOES and I need to pay Rs.340 per month totaling upto Rs.7,999 for 12 months.Discount card was very much sufficient and I had no interest to get all other complements .But, that person persuaded me to agree for the gift vouchers and again and again he was repeating my address and other card details.
The biggest blunder I made was to agree for the same and shared my CVV to effect this transaction,in spite of the bank sending caution messages .I never suspected them as they were repeatedly verifying my card details ,Mothers’ maiden Name and address.I was told that I will receive the discount card in 10 days’ time.This happened on 12/01/15 and I almost forgotten this issue and after 25/01/15,I realised and tried searching the vendor on website and no such vendor called gifts8home was not found.When I searched for the vendor on website,I could only find similar complaints against SBI from other consumers also almost during the same period .Finally,I understood that I have been cheated .
Though it is a mistake from my side ,I was made to believe that the vendor is genuine as they shared and verified all my personal details like DOB,Address,Mother’s maiden Name .How do they know all these details and from where they have been leaked to such fraudulent online cheaters.This responsibility wholly lies on SBI only.I have made several complaints and requested then to reverse the transaction,but, nothing is done so far.The complaint is still open.They can very well check with the vendor (Contact numbers are available to speak to the fraudulent vendor.I had also shared the same in my complaint) the POD details of the discount card, gift vouchers sent to me..But, it is pending still.
We consider SBI to be a premium bank which has very strict practices and transparent regulatory system ,but, the time taken to resolve and reverse the fraudulent transaction is disappointing…
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