potential bank frauds ~ experience the power of Internet banking !!

பார்மீது நான் சாகாதிருப்பேன், காண்பீர்!

மலிவுகண்டீர் இவ்வுண்மை பொய்கூறேன் யான் !!,

மடிந்தாலும் பொய்கூறேன் மானுடர்க்கே,

நலிவுமில்லை;  சாவுமில்லை,கேளீர்,கேளீர்!  

சுப்ரமணிய பாரதியார் ~ ஒரு உன்னத பிறவி.   கவிதைகள் வாயிலாக மக்களின் மனதில் விடுதலை உணர்வை ஊட்டியவர்.  அவர் இறந்ததோ செப்ட் 12 அதிகாலை !!!   

No post on the iconoclast, freedom fighter Mahakavi Subramanya Barathiyar – he lived in Thiruvallikkeni .. .. and remember in 1980s, the house which now stands as memorial had been bought by an individual and on the first floor was Triplicane Branch of Bank of Madura Ltd.  I had a Savings Bank Account opened in 1985 (a very proud moment those days!).  Triplicane was dotted with banks – SBI on South Mada Street (another branch in Pycrofts Road); Punjab National Bank in Singarachariyar Street, IOB, Indian Bank(2 branches), Dena Bank, Canara Bank, TNSC Bank in Big Street, UCO, Andhra Bank in Pycrofts Road and few more on Triplicane High Road.  Often, people would go there, stand in the queue to have their passbook updated.  .. .. those who had money would also deposit and some would withdraw – knowing banking procedures was considered a virtuous General knowledge !  .. ..

Now we do lot of ‘cashless’ transactions and mostly do not visit Bank branches at all – we buy with cards and pay them later – for the amount paid, we get credit points with which, you can buy more ! [sounds incredulous as a recent popular Advt !!] – yesterday I received an SMS stating that my Kotak Mahindra points [an odd 5765 !] were about to expire and if I click the link – they would have them extended besides giving additional 500 bonus points.  The format which opened is annexed at the end of this post.

Before that .. here is some banking news .. .. :  ICICI Lombard ceases to be a subsidiary of ICICI Bank  !!!   ICICI Lombard General Insurance has ceased to be a subsidiary of ICICI Bank. “With the bank’s shareholding reducing from 51.86-48.08 per cent, ICICI Lombard has ceased to be a subsidiary of the bank,” ICICI Bank said in a stock exchange filing on Thursday. This follows the allotment of equity shares of ICICI Lombard to the eligible shareholders of Bharti AXA General Insurance after the scheme of arrangement amongst Bharti AXA and ICICI Lombard and their respective shareholders and creditors. ICICI Lombard had on September 8 informed the stock exchanges that its board has allotted 3.57 crore equity shares to shareholders of Bharti AXA.   IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) had on September 3 given its final approval for the acquisition of the non-life insurance business of Bharti AXA General

Elsewhere,  Taliban have closed the bank accounts of some officials from the former Ashraf Ghani government, most of them who fled Afghanistan after the August 15 fall of Kabul, the media reported. The announcement was made on Thursday by Anaamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban Cultural Commission, but he did not reveal the names of the affected former officials, TOLO News reported.Accounts of some officials from the previous government, most of whom fled the country, have been closed," Samangani was quoted as saying. There was however no official comment on the development from Da Afghanistan Bank, the country's Central Bank.

If we are to believe web search, Banking in its modern sense evolved in the fourteenth century in the prosperous cities of Renaissance Italy but in many ways functioned as a continuation of ideas and concepts of credit and lending that had their roots in the ancient world.  Banking has come a long way since the days of regular visits to  bank counters.  ATM revolutionized the process which was further upgraded by Net Banking / mobile banking and more .. .. the online banking definition, or net banking definition, includes any electronic payment system that allows customers of a financial institution to conduct financial transactions through the financial institution’s internet-enabled website or app.  

The early version of what was considered online banking began in 1981. New York City was the first place in the U.S. to test out the innovative way of doing business by providing remote services as four of its major banks — Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical Bank and Manufacturers Hanover — made home-banking access available to their customers.  A couple of years later, Bank of Scotland instituted First UK Internet Banking Services – it was a service known as Homelink.   In 1998, ICICI Bank introduced internet banking to its customers.

Now most of us experience the power of banking at mouse click .. .. transacting through internet – and the link of SMS opened a page purportedly Kotak Mahindra seeking all possible details – it is possible that unwary people fall to this trap and provide all the information and end up providing all sensitive data, assuming it to be a link from the Bank though it actually leads to someother website.  .. .. and one cannot expect any money left in their account once all important details are surrendered to someone else !!

For me, I do not have any account with Kotak Mahindra and hence no way could provide any of these details !!  please be wary !!]

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
10^th Sept. 2021.