Earlier, I had heard a lot about bank frauds in the news channels and papers but today I experienced it myself. Though my case is no where related to net banking or anything but it was purely related to forgery. Here is the story:

I bought a laptop for one of my office guys, gave the cheque of Rs. 28,500 to the computer guy’s person (A/C Payee). In the morning the computer guy calls me asks me to stop the payment of that cheque as his person had lost it somewhere. I called up my bank’s customer support, they asked me to call the branch to do it. In between that I checked my bank account and was shocked to see the exact amount withdrawn as cash. (Bearer cheque)

But it was a A/C Payee cheque, so how did it happen? How did the bank allow at the first place? Well, it’s pretty simple and dumb on bank’s part too. The guy copied my signature on top, canceled “Order” word, so it becomes a bearer cheque. I asked the bank to get the photo copy of cheque. After checking it, I found that, the fake signature the guy had made was wrong, it was not same as the original one but still bank allowed him to take the money out.

Also, they gave him money without the company’s stamp. (Generally company’s stamp is required if the cheque is on the name of any company)

Though we have found the person (It was the computer guy’s employee only) but we are planing to lodge complaint to the bank for such negligence. Even a kid can make out that two signs are different.

Btw, this is what the guy did:

- He first went to the bank and asked for the cash against the cheque
- The bank guy tells him, you need to cancel “By Order” and get the sign of the owner
- Guy goes back, copies my sign and withdraws the cash

I never knew bank fraud is so easy.. only 3 steps..

Note: The bank in question is AXIS Bank, the branch is Chembur (Mumbai) branch.