CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION OF FRAUDS IN BANKING SECTOR

1.1 BANKING SYSTEM IN INDIA

Banking system occupies an important place in a nations economy. A banking institution is

indispensable in a modern society. It plays a pivotal role in economic development of a country and

forms the core of the money market in an advanced country.

Banking industry in India has traversed a long way to assume its present stature. It has undergone a

major structural transformation after the nationalization of 14 major commercial banks in 1969 and 5

more on 15 April 1980. Banks are the engines that drive the operations in the financial sector, which

is vital for the economy. With the nationalization of banks in 1969, they also have emerged as

engines for social change. After Independence, the banks have passed through three stages. They

have moved from the character based lending to ideology based lending to today competitiveness

based lending in the context of India's economic liberalization policies and the process of linking

with the global economy. A sound banking system should possess three basic characteristics to

protect depositors interest and public faith. Theses are

(i) a fraud free culture,

(ii) a time tested Best Practice Code, and

(iii) an in house immediate grievance remedial system. All these conditions are their missing or

extremely weak in India.

Section 5(b) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 defines banking as Banking is the accepting for

the purpose of lending or investment, deposits of money from the purpose of lending or investment,

deposits of money from the public, repayable on demand or otherwise and withdraw able by cheque,

draft, order or otherwise.

In the present day, Global Scenario Banking System has acquired new dimensions. Banking did

spread in India. Today, the banking system has entered into competitive markets in areas covering
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resource mobilization, human resource development, customer services and credit management as

well. With the rising banking business, frauds in banks are also increasing and the fraudsters are

becoming more and more sophisticated and ingenious. In a bid to keep pace with the changing times,

the banking sector has diversified its business manifold. Replacement of the philosophy of class

banking with mass banking in the post-nationalization period has thrown a lot of challenges to the

management on reconciling the social responsibility with economic viability. The banking system in

our country has been taking care of all segments of our socio-economic set up. A bank fraud is a

deliberate act of omission or commission by any person carried out in the course of banking

transactions or in the books of accounts, resulting in wrongful gain to any person for a temporary

period or otherwise, with or without any monetary loss to the bank.

1.2 DEFINITION OF FRAUD

Fraud is defined as any behavior by which one person intends to gain a dishonest advantage over

another. In other words , fraud is an act or omission which is intended to cause wrongful gain to one

person and wrongful loss to the other, either by way of concealment of facts or otherwise. Fraud is

defined u/s 421 of the Indian Penal Code and u/s 17 of the Indian Contract Act. Thus essential

elements of frauds are:

1. There must be a representation and assertion;

2. It must relate to a fact;

3. It must be with the knowledge that it is false or without belief in its truth; and

4. It must induce another to act upon the assertion in question or to do or not to do certain act.

A false representation of a matter of fact whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading

allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed that deceives and is intended to

deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury. In law, the deliberate

misrepresentation of fact for the purpose of depriving someone of a valuable possession or legal
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right. Any omission or concealment that is injurious to another or that allows a person to take

unconscionable advantage of another may constitute criminal fraud. The most common type of fraud

is the obtaining of property by giving a check for which there is insufficient funds in the signer's

account. Another is the assumption of someone else's or a fictitious identity with the intent to

deceive. Also important are mail and wire fraud (fraud committed by use of the postal service or

electronic devices, such as telephones or computers). A tort action based on fraud is sometimes

referred to as an action of deceit.

1.3 BANK FRAUDS

Losses sustained by banks as a result of frauds exceed the losses due to robbery, dacoit, burglary and

theft-all put together. Unauthorized credit facilities are extended for illegal gratification such as case

credit allowed against pledge of goods, hypothecation of goods against bills or against book debts.

Common modus operandi are, pledging of spurious goods, inletting the value of goods,

hypothecating goods to more than one bank, fraudulent removal of goods with the knowledge and

connivance of in negligence of bank staff, pledging of goods belonging to a third party.

While the operations of the bank have become increasingly significant, there is also an occupation

hazard. There is a Tamil proverb, which says that a man who collects honey will always be tempted

to lick his fingers. Banks are all the time dealing with money and the temptation should therefore is

very high. Oscar Wilde said that the thief was an artist and the policeman was only a critic. There are

many people who are unscrupulous and are able to perpetrate a fraud. We must be able to see that we

devise our systems and procedures in such a way that the scope for such clever and unscrupulous

people is reduced.

Frauds in deposit accounts take place by opening of bogus accounts, forging signatures of introducers

and collecting through such accounts stolen or forged cheques or bank drafts. Frauds are also

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committed in the area of granting overdraft facility in the current accounts of customers. A large

number of frauds have been committed through bank draft, mail transfers and telegraphic transfers.

An analysis made of cases brings out broadly the under mentioned four major elements responsible

for the commission of frauds in banks.

1. Active involvement of the staff-both supervisor and clerical either independent of external

elements or in connivance with outsiders.

2. Failure on the part of the bank staff to follow meticulously laid down instructions and guidelines.

3. External elements perpetuating frauds on banks by forgeries or manipulations of cheques, drafts

and other instruments.

4. There has been a growing collusion between business, top banks executives, civil servants and

politicians in power to defraud the banks, by getting the rules bent, regulations flouted and banking

norms thrown to the winds.

1.4 THE EFFECT OF BANK FRAUD

Beyond financial (monetary) losses fraud has other negative consequences that impact an institution

reputation, customer loyalty, and the confidence of the shareholder. Moreover in the greater impact,

the fraud cost is passed on to the customer.

The individual who fall victim to fraud can experience mental, psychological, financial, social and

Physical damage. The impact of fraud can also be very damaging to cooperate victims where

small/medium scale businesses are most times unable to recover from the financial or reputational

damage caused. However most large companies literally feel the impact through the increase cost of

doing business.

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1.5 FRAUD MANAGEMENT

Today while , electronic tracking and improved security has deter fraud practices the threat still exist

and bank fraud still occurs on regular basis. Fraud as have been mentioned earlier on is a crime, and

is becoming difficult to pin down, however, with the right management controls, practices and policy

frame work, it can be mitigated. While financial institutions are increasingly spending more resources

on the management of fraud and it allied, the traditional approach of using transaction monitoring

systems can only work well for detecting individual point of sales fraud in real time.

The financial institutions need an integrated framework together with most comprehensive plan new

and modern fraud detection and prevention. This management approach needs to protect fraud at the

point and time of transaction, accurately detect incidents in transaction, span all the ways customers

interact with the institution and provide structured oversight for the fraud management program me.

There are some key elements that can help institutions to successfully prevent fraud. The institutions

must

Have staff code of conduct

Have managers who understand their responsibilities for preventing and detecting the risk of
fraud

Have fraud policy

Take a proactive approach to preventing fraud

Have employees who understand their responsibility for preventing fraud and detecting the
risk of fraud

Have a clear policy on accepting gifts and services

Screen new employees, including criminal history checks

Communicate staff code of conduct regularly-annually or biannually

Designate a person to be responsible for fraud risks, including investigations

Review fraud controls regularly- annually or biannually

Communicate fraud policies regularly-annually or biannually

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 CHAPTER : 2 TYPES OF BANK FRAUDS

2.1 FRAUD DONE BY INSIDERS

1. Wire fraud

Wire transfer networks such as the international interbank fund transfer system are tempting as

targets as a transfer, once made, is difficult or impossible to reverse. As these networks are used by

banks to settle accounts with each other, rapid or overnight wire transfer of large amounts of money

are commonplace; while banks have put checks and balances in place, there is the risk that insiders

may attempt to use fraudulent or forged documents which claim to request a bank depositor's money

be wired to another bank, often an offshore account in some distant foreign country.

2. Rogue traders

A rogue trader is a highly placed insider nominally authorised to invest sizeable funds on behalf of

the bank; this trader secretly makes progressively more aggressive and risky investments using the

bank's money, when one investment goes bad, the rogue trader engages in further market speculation

in the hope of a quick profit which would hide or cover the loss. Unfortunately, when one investment

loss is piled onto another, the costs to the bank can reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars;

there have even been cases in which a bank goes out of business due to market investment losses.

3. Fraudulent loans

One way to remove money from a bank is to take out a loan, a practice bankers would be more than

willing to encourage if they know that the money will be repaid in full with interest. A fraudulent

loan, however, is one in which the borrower is a business entity controlled by a dishonest bank officer

or an accomplice; the "borrower" then declares bankruptcy or vanishes and the money is gone. The

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borrower may even be a non-existent entity and the loan merely an artifice to conceal a theft of a

large sum of money from the bank.

4. Forged or fraudulent documents:

Forged documents are often used to conceal other thefts; banks tend to count their money

meticulously so every penny must be accounted for. A document claiming that a sum of money has

been borrowed as a loan, withdrawn by an individual depositor or transferred or invested can

therefore be valuable to a thief who wishes to conceal the minor detail that the bank's money has in

fact been stolen and is now gone.

5. Uninsured deposits

There are a number of cases each year where the bank itself turns out to be uninsured or not licensed

to operate at all. The objective is usually to solicit for deposits to this uninsured "bank", although

some may also sell stock representing ownership of the "bank". Sometimes the names appear very

official or very similar to those of legitimate banks. For instance, the "Chase Trust Bank" of

Washington D.C. appeared in 2002 with no licence and no affiliation to its seemingly apparent

namesake; the real Chase Manhattan Bank is based in New York. There is a very high risk of fraud

when dealing with unknown or uninsured institutions.

The risk is greatest when dealing with offshore or Internet banks (as this allows selection of countries

with lax banking regulations), but not by any means limited to these institutions.

6. Demand draft fraud

Demand draft fraud is usually done by one or more dishonest bank employees. They remove few DD

leaves or DD books from stock and write them like a regular DD. Since they are insiders, they know

the coding, punching of a demand draft. These Demand drafts will be issued payable at distant
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town/city without debiting an account. Then it will be cashed at the payable branch. For the paying

branch it is just another DD. This kind of fraud will be discovered only when the head office does the

branch-wise reconciliation, which normally will take 6 months. By that time the money is

unrecoverable.

2.2 FRAUD DONE BY OTHERS

7. Forgery and altered cheques

Thieves have altered cheques to change the name (in order to deposit cheques intended for payment

to someone else) or the amount on the face of a cheque (a few strokes of a pen can change Rs.10000

into Rs.100,000, although such a large figure may raise some eyebrows). Instead of tampering with a

real cheque, some fraudsters will attempt to forge a depositor's signature on a blank cheque or even

print their own cheques drawn on accounts owned by others, non-existent accounts or even alleged

accounts owned by non-existent depositors. The cheque will then be deposited to another bank and

the money withdrawn before the cheque can be returned as invalid or for non-sufficient funds.

8. Stolen cheques

Some fraudsters obtain access to facilities handling large amounts of cheques, such as a mailroom or

post office or the offices of a tax authority (receiving many cheques) or a corporate payroll or a social

or veterans' benefit office (issuing many cheques). A few cheques go missing; accounts are then

opened under assumed names and the cheques (often tampered or altered in some way) deposited so

that the money can then be withdrawn by thieves. Stolen blank chequebooks are also of value to

forgers who then sign as if they were the depositor

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9. Accounting fraud

In order to hide serious financial problems, some businesses have been known to use fraudulent

bookkeeping to overstate sales and income, inflate the worth of the company's assets or state a profit

when the company is operating at a loss. These tampered records are then used to seek investment

in the company's bond or security issues or to make fraudulent loan applications in a final attempt to

obtain more money to delay the inevitable collapse of an unprofitable or mismanaged firm.

Accounting fraud has also been used to conceal other theft taking place within a company.

10. Bill discounting fraud

Essentially a confidence trick, a fraudster uses a company at their disposal to gain confidence with a

bank, by appearing as a genuine, profitable customer. To give the illusion of being a desired

customer, the company regularly and repeatedly uses the bank to get payment from one or more of its

customers. These payments are always made, as the customers in question are part of the fraud,

actively paying any and all bills raised by the bank. After time, after the bank is happy with the

company, the company requests that the bank settles its balance with the company before billing the

customer. Again, business continues as normal for the fraudulent company, its fraudulent

customers, and the unwitting bank. Only when the outstanding balance between the bank and the

company is sufficiently large, the company takes the payment from the bank, and the company and

its customers disappear, leaving no-one to pay the bills issued by the bank.

11.Cheque kiting

Cheque kiting exploits a system in which, when a cheque is deposited to a bank account, the money

is made available immediately even though it is not removed from the account on which the cheque is

drawn until the cheque actually clears. Deposit Rs.1000 in one bank, write a cheque on that amount

and deposit it to your account in another bank; you now have Rs2000 until the cheque clears.
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In-transit or non-existent cash is briefly recorded in multiple accounts. A cheque is cashed and,

before the bank receives any money by clearing the cheque, the money is deposited into some other

account or withdrawn by writing more cheques. In many cases, the original deposited cheque turns

out to be a forged cheque. Some perpetrators have swapped checks between various banks on a daily

basis, using each to cover the shortfall for a previous cheque. What they were actually doing was

check kiting; like a kite in the wind, it flies briefly but eventually has to come back down to the

ground.

12.Payment card fraud:

Credit card fraud is widespread as a means of stealing from banks, merchants and clients. A credit

card is made of three plastic sheet of polyvinyl chloride. The central sheet of the card is known as the

core stock. These cards are of a particular size and many data are embossed over it. But credit cards

fraud manifest in a number of ways. They are:

i) Genuine cards are manipulated

ii) Genuine cards are altered

iii) Counterfeit cards are created

iv) Fraudulent telemarketing is done with credit cards.

v) Genuine cards are obtained on fraudulent applications in the names/addresses of other persons and

used. It is feared that with the expansion of E-Commerce, M-Commerce and Internet facilities being

available on massive scale the fraudulent fund freaking via credit cards will increase tremendously.

i) Booster cheques:

A booster cheque is a fraudulent or bad cheque used to make a payment to a credit card account in

order to "bust out" or raise the amount of available credit on otherwise-legitimate credit cards. The

amount of the cheque is credited to the card account by the bank as soon as the payment is made,
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even though the cheque has not yet cleared. Before the bad cheque is discovered, the perpetrator goes

on a spending spree or obtains cash advances until the newly-"raised" available limit on the card is

reached. The original cheque then bounces, but by then it is already too late.

ii) Stolen payment cards:

Often, the first indication that a victim's wallet has been stolen is a phone call from a credit card

issuer asking if the person has gone on a spending spree; the simplest form of this theft involves

stealing the card itself and charging a number of high-ticket items to it in the first few minutes or

hours before it is reported as stolen.

A variant of this is to copy just the credit card numbers (instead of drawing attention by stealing the

card itself) in order to use the numbers in online frauds. The use of a four digit Personal Identity

Number (PIN) instead of a signature helps to prevent this type of fraud.

iii) Duplication or skimming of card information:

This takes a number of forms, ranging from a dishonest merchant copying clients' credit card

numbers for later misuse (or a thief using carbon copies from old mechanical card imprint machines

to steal the info) to the use of tampered credit or debit card readers to copy the magnetic stripe from a

payment card while a hidden camera captures the numbers on the face of the card.

Some thieves have surreptitiously added equipment to publicly accessible automatic teller machines;

a fraudulent card stripe reader would capture the contents of the magnetic stripe while a hidden

camera would sneak a peek at the user's PIN. The fraudulent equipment would then be removed and

the data used to produce duplicate cards that could then be used to make ATM withdrawals from the

victims' accounts.

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13. Empty ATM envelope deposits:

A criminal overdraft can result due to the account holder making a worthless or misrepresented

deposit at an automated teller machine in order to obtain more cash than present in the account or to

prevent a check from being returned due to non-sufficient funds. The crime could also be perpetrated

against another person's account in an "account takeover" or with a counterfeit ATM card, or an

account opened in another person's name as part of an identity theft scam. This scenario may become

a thing of the past next decade due to the emergence of ATM deposit technology that scans currency

and checks without using an envelope.

14. Impersonation:

Impersonation has become an increasing problem; the scam operates by obtaining information about

an individual, then using the information to apply for identity cards, accounts and credit in that

person's name. Often little more than name, parents' name, date and place of birth are sufficient to

obtain a birth certificate; each document obtained then is used as identification in order to obtain

more identity documents. Government issued standard identification numbers such as "social security

numbers" PAN numbers are also valuable to the fraudster.

Information may be obtained from insiders (such as dishonest bank or government employees), by

fraudulent offers for employment or investments (in which the victim is asked for a long list of

personal information) or by sending forged bank or taxation correspondence.

In some cases, a name is needed to impersonate a citizen while working as an illegal immigrant but

often the identity thieves are using the bogus identity documents in the commission of other crimes or

even to hide from prosecution for past crimes. The use of a stolen identity for other frauds such

as gaining access to bank accounts, credit cards, loans and fraudulent social benefit or tax refund

claims is not uncommon. Unsurprisingly, the perpertators of such fraud have been known to take out

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loans and disappear with the cash, quite content to see the wrong persons blamed when the debts go

bad or the police come calling.

15. Fraudulent loan applications

These take a number of forms varying from individuals using false information to hide a credit

history filled with financial problems and unpaid loans to corporations using accounting fraud to

overstate profits in order to make a risky loan appear to be a sound investment for the bank.

Some corporations have engaged in over-expansion, using borrowed money to finance costly mergers

and acquisitions and overstating assets, sales or income to appear solvent even after becoming

seriously financially overextended.

16. Prime bank fraud:

The "prime bank" operation which claims to offer an urgent, exclusive opportunity to cash in on the

best-kept secret in the banking industry, guaranteed deposits in "prime banks", "constitutional banks",

"bank notes and bank-issued debentures from top 500 world banks", "bank guarantees and standby

letters of credit" which generate spectacular returns at no risk and are "endorsed by the World Bank"

or various national governments and central bankers. However, these official-sounding phrases and

more are the hallmark of the so-called "prime bank" fraud; they may sound great on paper, but the

guaranteed offshore investment with the vague claims of an easy 100% monthly return are all

fictitious financial instruments intended to defraud individuals.

17. Phishing and Internet fraud:

Phishing operates by sending forged e-mail, impersonating an online bank, auction or payment site;

the e-mail directs the user to a forged web site which is designed to look like the login to the

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legitimate site but which claims that the user must update personal info. The information thus stolen

is then used in other frauds, such as theft of identity or online auction fraud.

Phishing means sending an e-mail that falsely claims to be a particular enterprise and asking for

sensitive financial information. Phishing, thus, is an attempt to scam the user into surrendering

private information that will then be used by the scammer for his own benefit.Phishing uses 'spoofed'

e-mails and fraudulent Web sites that look very similar to the real ones thus fooling the recipients into

giving out their personal data. Most phishing attacks ask for credit card numbers, account usernames

and passwords. According to statistics phishers are able to convince up to five per cent of the

recipients who respond to them.

18. Money laundering

Money laundering has been used to describe any scheme by which the true origin of funds is hidden

or concealed. The operations work in various forms. One variant involved buying securities (stocks

and bonds) for cash; the securities were then placed for safe deposit in one bank and a claim on those

assets used as collateral for a loan at another bank. The borrower would then default on the loan. The

securities, however, would still be worth their full amount. The transaction served only to disguise

the original source of the funds.

19. Forged currency notes:

Paper currency is the usual mode of exchange of money at the personal level, though in business,

cheques and drafts are also used considerably. Bank note has been defined in Section 489A.If forgery

of currency notes could be done successfully then it could on one hand made the forger millionaire

and the other hand destroy the economy of the nation. A currency note is made out of a special paper

with a coating of plastic laminated on both sides of each note to protect the ink and the anti forgery

device from damage. More over these notes have security threads, water marks. But these things are
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not known to the majority of the population. Forged currency notes are in full circulation and its

very difficult to catch hold of such forgers as once such notes are circulated its very difficult to track

its origin.

20. Computer Frauds:

Computerization has brought advantages of efficiency, speed and economy in all spheres of life. It is

a very powerful tool and provides opportunities of efficiency and speed to everybody using it.

Further, the vast increase in the memory (whether RAM or storage) and processing speeds as well as

availability of wide range of software, particularly Internet and web-based applications i.e.

connectivity, have made them pervade all aspects of our lives. This has also brought large economy

of scale particularly in our economic environment and we are becoming more and more dependent on

computers and their networks for the services such systems deliver. Frauds committed using

computers vary from complex financial frauds where large amounts are illegally transferred between

accounts by sophisticated hackers, to the simpler frauds where computer is only a tool that a criminal

uses to commit a crime. It also provides ample opportunities for their misuse particularly for

economic or financial gains. This is as computers networks can also be used to commit crimes from

geographically far places. Such computer frauds are known by various names such as cyber crimes or

e-crimes and we can describe them as an act involving computer equipment, software or data that

results in an unauthorized financial advantage. Worldwide frauds in computerized environment cause

losses running into very large sums. Although in India, frauds committed so far have not revealed any

extensive manipulation of computer systems, it is no doubt a potentially high-risk area, which should

be addressed carefully and in timely manner. According to a recent survey, companies in India have

not addressed security issues appropriately.

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1) Manipulation: In an ideal situation, where information systems have all the necessary controls,

which are properly integrated with other manual controls and maintained, there will generally be no

cause of worry. It is however, not so.

Not only, most system controls are not perfect, people also try to manipulate systems for variety of

motives from games playing, ego peer pressure, and hatred for the organization, emotional

maladjustment, blackmail and economic gains. Such people could be insiders, outsiders as well as

vendors, competitors in fact any one. Computer frauds gain their criticality as they are easy to

commit, difficult to detect and even harder to prove. The most important type of such frauds is

committing the fraud by manipulation of input, output or throughput of a computer system.

a) Input Manipulation: In input manipulation, input data such as deposit amounts in ledgers, limits in

accounts or face value of cheques are changed.

b) Output manipulation: Output manipulation is achieved by affecting the output of the system, such

as use of stolen or falsified cards in ATM machines.

c) Throughput manipulation: Throughput manipulation could be by rounding off sums credited to

different accounts and siphoning of the rounded digits to another account. No system is foolproof and

fraudulent transfers can occur in even highly automated and secure funds transfer systems.

2) Unauthorized use: Other types of such frauds or crimes could be unauthorized access to computers

by hacking into systems or stealing passwords, deliberate damage caused to computer data or

programs, computer forgery (changing of data or images stored in computers) and un-authorized

reproduction / modification of computer programs.

3) Awareness: Other important causes of such frauds are lack of employee awareness, poor

implementation of security policies and segregation of duties, vendor products with weak security

controls, outsourced service providers and hackers (many as young as school students). Computer

frauds in such cases are generally for economic benefit to the fraudster and corresponding loss to the

organization.
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 CHAPTER : 3 MEASURES TAKEN BY BANK TO AVOID FRAUD

A close study of any fraud in bank reveals many common basic features. There may have been

negligence or dishonesty at some stage, on part of one or more of the bank employees. One of them

may have colluded with the borrower. The bank official may have been putting up with the

borrowers sharp practices for a personal gain. The proper care which was expected of the staff, as

custodians of banks interest may not have been taken. The banks rules and procedures laid down in

the Manual instructions and the circulars may not have been observed or may have been deliberately

ignored.

Components of Fraud:

There are two important components in any fraud committed by an employee of a bank, himself or in

collusion with a burrower. They are, firstly, the intention which is subjective; and secondly, the

opportunity which is objective. Conditions must be created in the bank that the person who intends

perpetrating a fraud does not get the opportunity to commit it.

In India, the design, management and regulation of electronically-based payments system are

becoming the focus of policy deliberations. The imperatives of developing an effective, efficient and

speedy payment and settlement systems are getting sharper with introduction of new instruments

such as credit cards, telebanking, ATMs, retail Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and Electronic

Clearing Services (ECS). We are moving towards smart cards, credit and financial Electronic Data

Interchange (EDI) for straight through processing. We are basically concerned about computer frauds

committed by an unauthorized user (whether insider or outsider) to the computer networks, which

aims at causing economic or financial gains to the user by this act or an economic or financial loss to

the information system (i.e. hardware, software and data) owner.

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3.1 PREVENTION OF FRAUDS

i) Internal Prevention:

It is said that failures are the stepping stone for success. What this means is that if we are able to

analyse why a particular failure by way of a fraud took place, we can then detect the loopholes in our

system which led to the fraud and take corrective measures or change the system. For instance the

great Harshad Mehta scam took place because among other things, the public debt office of the

Reserve Bank of India was not computerized and was operating on a manual system. This gave a

float of fifteen days, which gave opportunity for people like Ketan Parekh to perpetrate the fraud.

Even after this scam while in the case of the RBI the defect was rectified the overall banking system

is still manual. Only 5000 out of the 65000 branches of banks are computerised. In today's

competitive market, it is necessary that the banks are able to service their clients effectively.

Therefore strongly urge is that we should have a massive effort at computerisation of the banks.

Execution of Documents:

1. A bank officer must adopt a strict professional approach in the execution of documents. The ink

and the pen used for the execution must be maintained uniformly.

2. Bank documents should not be typed on a typewriter for execution. These should be invariably

handwritten for execution.

3. The execution should always be done in the presence of the officer responsible for obtain them,

4. The borrowers should be asked to sign in full signatures in same style throughout the documents.

5. Unless there is a specific requirement in the document, it should not be got attested or witnessed as

such attestation may change the character of the instruments and the documents may subject to stamp

duty.

6. The paper on which the bank documents are made should be pilfer proof. It should be unique and

available to the banks only.

7. The printing of the bank documents should have highly artistic intricate and complex graphics.
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8. The documents executed between Banker and Borrowers must be kept in safe custody,

One issue when a fraud is perpetrated is who should be held responsible. For instance in the case of

the borrower-based accounts, there is the person who posts the accounts, there is the person who

passes the instrument and, there is a third person who makes the payment. It has been suggested that

there must be a method of isolating the person who makes the payment from the people who make

the posting or pass the order. The relative responsibility of the three will have to be fixed. This is an

issue that has been raised before me by one of the Chairman of the banks. Perhaps in a program like

this we will be able to go into such issues and evolve guidelines about what should be done so that

while the innocent is not punished, the guilty are not spared.

Another issue, which is of importance to the Indian economy. This is the reported fear of many

officers, especially in the middle levels in the banks, to take decisions regarding dispersal of funds.

As a result, there is always a tendency to push the case upwards and the whole banking system is

operating in a sub-optimal manner. We must be able to find a solution to this. In fact, the whole

vigilance function can become an effective function for economic growth if we are able to create an

environment in which the honest are encouraged to take the decision and the dishonest are punished

quickly.

Bank frauds are the failure of the banker. It does not mean that the external frauds do not defraud

banks. But if the banker is upright and knows his job, the task of defrauder will become extremely

difficult, if not possible.

ii) External Prevention:

In the banking and financial sectors, the introduction of electronic technology for transactions,

settlement of accounts, bookkeeping and all other related functions is now an imperative.

Increasingly, whether we like it or not, all banking transactions are going to be electronic. The thrust

is on commercially important centers, which account for 65 percent of banking business in terms of

value. There are now a large number of fully computerized branches across the country.
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a) Appropriate controls:

The first steps in prevention of frauds in computerized systems involve setting up of proper access

controls both physical and logical. The physical protection of Information System assets means

physical control of access to computer and network systems and the devices to which they are

connected. Access to these systems could be controlled by security guards, installation of code locks,

smart card driven door opening devices or modern biometric devices (which control the access on the

basis of certain individual characteristics such as finger-prints, eyes retina image etc., which cannot

be changed or falsified).

However, in a computerized environment, logical access controls (i.e. controls to operating systems,

data-base systems as well as application systems) play more important role. Adequate controls over

system software and data is done by keeping a strict control over functional division of labor between

all classes of employees, keeping in mind the principle of least privilege and that maker and checker.

A clear segmentation of access to system engineers, programmers and administrators is also done

depending on their work responsibility. Information System Auditors / Security Management must

exercise a great deal of creativity in identifying ways in which unauthorized users could gain access.

Hence, the first step in prevention of computer frauds is setting up of the appropriate controls.

b) Proper Implementation:

Second step in prevention of frauds would be to ensure that the users properly implement the control

systems. Control measures could be either software driven like passwords or system driven like

exception reports and transaction authorization processes. In this connection, it may be noted that

access controls are a system in themselves and existence of such controls means existence and

maintenance of such control systems.

In the case of passwords, as access control measures. It may be noted that merely having passwords is

not sufficient. It should also be ensured that password have been prescribed to have certain minimum

characters, are stored in encrypted files, there is a forced change of passwords at the time of first
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login as well as after a specified period. These features however depend on the security policy of the

organization.

Systems are also designed to keep a chronological record of the events occurring in the system (i.e.

commands executed by the users, actions on files, messages displayed by the system, resources

consumption by the users, transaction entry and security violations) in the form of audit trails. These

can be built in operating systems, database management systems as well as application software. A

regular analysis of audit trails as control measure helps in containing any future loss through fraud.

However, although having good controls and maintaining them is a major step in prevention of frauds

it is still not sufficient to prevent them. Even with the best of systems and their maintenance, all the

possibilities of their misuse can neither be predicted nor tested. Even when the best of the access

controls tools are used and monitored, when data flows from within the network through data

communication lines or from one network to another or through Internet, protection of the data

becomes an important tool for prevention of frauds. For this, one can either depend on simple

processes like check sum or hash totals built in the software or may require using encryption

technology or cryptography. The complexity and cost of implementation of these methods varies a lot

and is, hence, decided by the risk element.

Present technology also makes us available what is called as Intruder Detection Systems (IDS). IDS

are systems build up to detect intruders entering the network. It is the process of identifying and

responding to malicious activity targeted at computing and networking resources and is an important

component of defensive measures protecting computer system and networks from abuses.

There are different kinds of IDS:

i) Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) monitor packets on the network and attempt

to discover if a hacker is trying to break into a system.

ii) System Integrity Verifiers (SIV) monitors system files to detect when an intruder changes

them and send alert.

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 iii) Log File Monitor (LFM) monitors log files generated by network and look for patterns in the

log files that suggest an intruder is attacking. Once the hacker gets into the network it triggers an

alarm at the same time.

As firewall acts like a fence around the network, it cannot on its own detect somebody trying to break

in. It restricts access at the designated points. IDS, on the other hand, are intended to recognize

attacks against the network that firewall are unable to see. 80% of all the financial losses are due to

hacking that come from inside the network. Firewall cannot see anything happening inside the

network. Firewall checks for traffic which passes between internal network and the Internet. Adding

IDS will double-check miss-configured firewalls; catch attempts that fail; catch insider hacking;

record electronic evidence.

3.2 DETECTION OF FRAUDS

i) Internal detection:

Despite all care and vigilance there may still be some frauds, though their number, periodicity and

intensity may be considerably reduced. The following procedure would be very helpful if taken into

consideration:

1. All relevant data-papers, documents etc. Should be promptly collected. Original vouchers or other

papers forming the basis of the investigation should be kept under lock and key.

2. All persons in the bank who may be knowing something about the time, place a modus operandi of

the fraud should be examined and their statements should be recorded.

3. The probable order of events should thereafter be reconstructed by the officer, in his own mind.

4. It is advisable to keep the central office informed about the fraud and further developments in

regard thereto.

One method of detection will be only by regular checks and this is where apparently there is

slackness today. Ultimately we must be able to create in our banks an atmosphere of trust on the one
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side and transparency on the other so that frauds if they occur are immediately detected, checked and

penalized.

Apart from the systems and procedures, ultimately the whole issue boils down to the values we have.

Today we are highly tolerant of corruption. We also have in our Hindu philosophy the two basic

principles, which seem to indirectly encourage corruption. These are extreme tolerance and the

prayaschitta principle. As a result many people who commit frauds can literally get away freely. Our

systems are really to be blamed. As it is seen, if we make a quick analysis of 100 people in any given

organisation, 10% may be honest and 10% dishonest whatever we do. 80% depend on the systems we

have. And our systems encourage corruption due to the following factors:

Scarcity of goods and services

Lack of transparency

Delay and red tape

Cushions of safety that have been built for the corrupt on the healthy principle that everybody is

innocent till proved guilty. We have got voluminous vigilance manuals and the corrupt can find

always some method of escaping punishment by exploiting some loophole or other.

This must be checked.

Do not know to what extent the bank frauds can be attributed to the people in our own banking

system that, because of loyalty of the profession or organisation, tends to protect the corrupt. Such

people may be doing a disservice to the nation. We should therefore be able to evolve ultimately

systems which tackle the corruption promoting factors mentioned above so that the punishment of the

corrupt becomes a perceived reality and acts as a check for people who have a tendency to commit

frauds. After all that is the way for prevention and detection of frauds.

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ii) External detection:

Despite all such measures, as technology is taking rapid strides (for fraudsters as well as

organizations), system security administrators are discovering that they have to constantly improve

upon the technological tools. However, security can only reduce the possibility of fraud and not

totally rule it out. In a computerized environment, the perpetrators of fraud also expect their crime to

be near impossible to detect among the thousands or millions of transactions processed by the

organization. Hence to reduce the losses, timely detection of the frauds plays an important role. Bank

computer crimes have a typical feature, the evidence relating to crime is intangible. The evidences

can be easily erased, tampered or secreted. More over it is not easily detectable. More over the

evidence connecting the criminal with the crime is often not available. Computer crimes are different

from the usual crimes mainly because of the mode of investigation. There are no eyewitness, no usual

evidentiary clues and no documentary evidences.

It is difficult to investigate for the following reasons:

Hi-tech crime

The information technology is changing very fast. The normal investigator does not have the proper

background and knowledge .special investigators have to be created to carry out the investigations.

the FBI of USA have a cell, even in latest scenario there has been cells operating in the Maharashtra

police department to counter cyber crimes.C.B.I also have been asked to create special team for

fighting cyber crimes.

International crime:

A computer crime may be committed in one country and the result can be in another country. There

has been lot of jurisdictional problem a though the Interpol does help but it too has certain

limitations. The different treaties and conventions have created obstructions in relation to tracking of

cyber criminals hiding or operation in other nations

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No-scene crime:

The computer satellite computer link can be placed or located any where. The usual crime scene is

the cyber space. The terminal may be anywhere and the criminal need not indicate the place. The

only evidence a criminal leaves behind is the loss to the crime.

Faceless crime:

The major advantage criminal has in instituting a computer crime is that there is no personal

exposure, no written documents, no signatures, no fingerprints or voice recognition. The criminal is

truly and in strict sense faceless. There are certain spy softwares which is utilized to find out

passwords and other vital entry information to a computer system. The entry is gained through a

spam or bulk mail.

The existing enacted laws of India are not at all adequate to counter cyber crimes. The Indian Penal

code, evidence act, and criminal procedure code has no clue about computers when they were

codified. It is highly required to frame and enact laws which would deal with those subjects which

are new to the country specially cyber law; Intellectual property right etc.

The Reserve Bank of India has come up with different proposals to make the way easier, they have

enacted electronic fund transfer act and regulations, have amended, The Reserve Bank of India Act,

Bankers Book Evidence Act etc., experience of India in relation to information and technology is

limited and is in a very immature state. It is very much imperative that the state should seek the help

of the experienced and developed nations.

As the success of the fraudster depends on how fast their crime is detected among very large number

of transactions processed by the organization, auditors and fraud investigators find that computers are

their best tools for detection of fraud. Powerful, interactive software that quickly sifts through

mountains of electronic data enables auditors to effectively detect and prevent fraud throughout an

organization.

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3.3 SECURITY IN BANKING SYSTEM

Security implies sense of safety and of freedom from danger or anxiety. When a banker takes a

collateral security, say in the form of gold or a title deed, against the money lent by him, he has a

sense of safety and of freedom from anxiety about the possible non-payment of the loan by the

borrower. These should be communicated to all strata of the organization through appropriate means.

Before staff managers should analyze current practices. Security procedure should be stated explicitly

and agreed upon by each user in the specific environment. Such practices ensure information security

and enhance availability. Bank security is essentially a defense against unforced attacks by thieves,

dacoits and burglars.

P HYSICAL S ECURITY M EASURES -C ONCEPT:

A large part of banks security depends on social security measures. Physical security measures can be

defined as those specific and special protective or defensive measures adopted to deter, detect, delay,

defend and defeat or to perform any one or more of these functions against culpable acts, both covert

and acclamations natural events. The protective or defensive, measures adopted involve construction,

installation and deployment of structures, equipment and persons respectively.

The following are few guidelines to check malpractices:

1. To rotate the cash work within the staff.

2. One person should not continue on the same seat for more than two months.

3. Daybook should not be written by the Cashier where another person is available to the job.

4. No cash withdrawal should be allowed within passbook in case of withdrawal by pay order.

5. The branch manager should ensure that all staff members have recorder their presence in the

attendance registrar, before starting work.

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CHANGES IN LEGISLATIONS AFTER ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS:

1. Section 91 of IPC shall be amended to include electronic documents also.

2. Section 92 of Indian Evidence Act, 1872 shall be amended to include commuter based

communications.

3. Section 93 of Bankers Book Evidence Act, 1891 has been amended to give legal sanctity for books

of account maintained in the electronic form by the banks.

4. Section 94 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1939 shall be amended to facilitate electronic fund

transfers between the financial institutions and the banks. A new clause has been inserted in Section

58(2).

3.4 TWO EXAMPLES OF BANK FRAUD

A. PNB Official involved in Bank Fraud of Rs. 2 Lakh

July 14, 2008

The cases of credit card frauds do not seem to end. Following the recent case of an ING Vysya Bank

employee, in partnership with others, duping the bank of crores, a case has been registered against a

Punjab National Bank (PNB) in Chandigarh. Baldev Singh, who works as a cashier-cum-computer

operator in the Kurali branch of PNB, has been remanded to police custody because of

duping the bank to an amount of Rs 2 lakh. According to the investigating officer, Ravindar Pal

Singh, the accused had first defrauded the bank of Rs 1.87 lakh; however, after he was caught, he

duped 2 more customers to the tune of Rs 1.1 lakh to clear the banks liability.

The case had come to the Kurali police when the head of PNB, Chandigarh Circle, had lodged a

complaint against Baldev on March 10. That day the bank had given Rs 8 lakh in cash to Baldev

Singh to disburse payments as cashier-cum-computer operator. However, he had disbursed Rs 6,

12,700 but failed to deposit back the remaining amount of Rs 1, 87,300. After the bank authorities

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had initiated an enquiry against the accused, he committed to the crime and agreed to pay back the

defrauded cash.

However, on March 15, he once again siphoned off Rs 1, 00,500 from the account of a customer,

Balveer Singh. Further enquiry also revealed that he had duped another customer, Beant Singh, of Rs

10,000 as he withdrew Rs 15,000 from Beants account when the latter had come to withdraw Rs

5,000.

B. UTI Bank: Phishing Fraud :

Recent fraudulent transactions through phishing resulted in loss of over Rs

20 lakh for a customers.

Friday, June 08, 2007

The Economic Offences Wing, Crime Branch, Delhi Police, received a complaint from the vice

president, Operations, UTI Bank that many customers of various UTI banks in Delhi,

Vishakapatnam, Thane, Nasik, and Ahmedabad received emails claiming to have originated from the

bank. These emails included a hyperlink within the email itself, and a click on the link took the

recipients to a Web page, which was identical to UTI's Web page. Some unsuspecting recipients

responded to these mails, and gave their login information and passwords. Later on, through Internet

banking, a large number of fraudulent transactions took place. These transactions resulted in loss of

over Rs 20 lakh for customers with bank accounts in Delhi, Vishakapatnam, Thane, Nasik, and

Ahmedabad.

An analysis on those phishing mails revealed that they had originated from somewhere in Lagos,

Nigeria. The UTI phishing site had lifted the UTI logo as well as the Iconnect symbol from the

original UTI site in order to make the fake site look real. The fake site provided a 'click here' option,

which in turn took victims to a fake customer verification site based in Austria. IP addresses of the

fraudulent transactions indicated transactions had been made from Nigeria, Atlanta and California.
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 CONCLUSION

The Indian Banking Industry has undergone tremendous growth since nationalization of 14 banks in

the year 1969. There has an almost eight times increase in the bank branches from about 8000 during

1969 to more than 60,000 belonging to 289 commercial banks, of which 66 banks are in private

sector.

However, with the spread of banking and banks, frauds have been on a constant increase. It could be

a natural corollary to increase in the number of customers who are using banks these days. In the year

2000 alone we have lost Rs 673 crores in as many as 3,072 number of fraud cases. These are only

reported figures. There were nearly 65,800 bank branches of a total of 295 commercial banks in India

as on June 30, 2001 reporting a total of nearly 3,072 bank fraud cases.

The most important feature of Bank frauds is that ordinarily they do not involve an individual direct

victim. They are punishable because they harm the whole society. It is clear that money involved in

Bank belongs to public. There must be certain preventive and curative measures to control frauds.

The

higher authority of bank must follow strict rules against such fraudsters. The various new

technologies must be adapted by the bank to overcome such frauds.

Thus, a fraud is the game of two, the rule makers and the rule breakers. Fraud is a phenomenon that

cannot be eliminated but can be managed.

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 BIBLOGRAPHY

WEBSITE:

www.google.co.in

www.yahoo.com

www.fraudsinindianbankingsector.com

www.icicibank.com

www.axisbank.com

www.scribd.com

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