Debit card fraud

My HDFC debit card was stolen from my car which was parked in one of our own institutions. I did not realize that the wallet was missing from my handbag till the time the Bank called me up 45 minutes later to confirm a transaction. Within 30 minutes time 16000/- gone. Much more could have gone had it not been detected by HDFC bank that the card is being misused. Jai ho HDFC.

Coming back to the story. The formal FIR was launched at the nearest police station. I called up and got the details of all the 4 transactions that have happened. All in petrol pumps. Located the address and phone number of the two petrol pumps. Unfortunately nobody was picking up the phone. So no progress was made till evening.

Morning again I rang up both the numbers confirmed the transactions and they agreed to give details personally. First I reached the second petrol pump where last two transactions had taken place. He gave a cooked up story of two white cars being topped up with fuel. So not much of progress. The second petrol pump where the first and second transaction had taken place had noted the number of the vehicle. He had filled up his vehicle and also made arrangement with the attendant to swipe the card for particular amount and collected the cash and paid some commission to the attendant. The only mistake he had made was that the attendant had noted the bike number and the college uniform he was wearing. Went to the particular institute and traced the vehicle and the owner. The student without even blinking an eye agreed to the misuse of debit card and agreed to give the cash back.

I was surprised to see the look on the young students face. He had no guilt of doing it. This incident happened in Nagpur and the names of the shops are Lalit Automobiles and Om auto service station. The surprising fact was that the shop keepers also are involved in the crime.