Is someone using your cheque book?

The text message was like any other from a bank back office. "Your ACXXXXX704753 Debited INR 6,90,123.00 on 07/08/14- DR THRU CHQ. Avl Bal INR ............."

Vasudev Kataria, a businessman and the account holder with a large stateowned bank, knew something was amiss: he had not signed a cheque in the last one week. Did the bank make a mistake? He accessed his Net banking account; money was missing and the cheque number was 977199. He looked around for his cheque book. It was lying in his drawer.

As he flipped through the pages, Kataria spotted the leaf with the number 977199. There was someone, he knew, who had deposited a cheque with the same number to take money out of his account. Is it possible? What was happening? Kataria sensed that he was not a victim of new-age frauds that newspapers have been reporting about: no one had stolen his Net banking password; no hacker had fished out his credit card data.

Instead, someone had simply used a cheque that was a replica of a leaf in his cheque book. Half an hour later, Kataria was told by the bank's Mumbai branch manager that the cheque was debited at the bank's branch in Nipani, a non-descript town in Karnataka and 37 kms from Kolhapur.

While Kataria did not lose any money (as the amount was credited back to his account by the end of the day), he as well as his branch manager are clueless of what happened, how it happened.

- How could someone, whom Kataria had never met, whose identity he was unaware of, get to know the cheque series that Kataria was using?

- Are there fake cheque books floating around? Aren't cheque leaves printed on special paper in some well-guarded security printing press?

- Don't cheques have security features like watermarks similar to currency notes?

- How does a man in Nipani get to know Katariafs signature?

The bank may stay mum and one doesn't know whether the police will ever look into the matter even though Kataria has filed a complaint with the local police station (after the Mumbai Economic Offences Wing told him it does not probe frauds less than Rs 3 crore).

What happened to Kataria could happen to anyone. One can only guess what the fraudster did. He befriended someone at the bank's central hub which issues cheque books; the guy at the hub may have put him in touch with his colleague in Kolhapur or Kanpur or anywhere — as core banking solution gives any employee at a branch access to account details, signature impression and available balance of any customer.

Officials often clear cheques looking at images transmitted to them on their computers and may not have a chance to get a feel of the paper to figure out that a cheque is fake. Kataria's bank has found out the conman, a resident of Belgaum with an account in a large co-operative bank, deposited the cheque with the Nipani branch of the co-op bank.

Fake FD Receipts

At a time when banks are trying to curb phishing, there are oldfashioned conmen who prefer printing fake cheque books and fixed deposit certificates. In the past few months, the Mumbai police has arrested a few after some companies, educational institutions and temple trusts in Maharashtra discovered that someone had raised money through overdrafts against their FDs using fake documents.

It begins with a broker who promises the best rate on FDs, collects documents like balance-sheet and tax returns, and opens an account on behalf of the institution. He also prints fake documents that look identical to originals.

After the money is deposited — either through electronic transfer or account payee cheques — the broker collects the FD receipt but never delivers it to the client.

Instead, an envelope of the bank is used to courier a fake receipt to the deposit holder who suspects nothing. Weeks after the FD account is opened, the broker — once again representing a company — raises an overdraft using fake documents. Old-fashioned crooks can be as smart as new-age con artists