Financial frauds: Govt working with RBI to address cases of transaction below Rs 1 Lakh

The government is working with the Reserve Bank (RBI) to look into cases of financial frauds involving amounts which are below Rs 1 lakh, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in Rajya Sabha on Friday. A Financial Data Protection bill has been drafted that aims to address issues related to data theft, including from social networking websites, the minister also told the House.

Presently, the RBI along with banks is tracking cases of frauds related to credit, debit and ATM cards and internet banking involving over Rs one lakh, he said.  "The data of India cannot be stolen and strict action will be taken against any kind of fraud," Prasad said during the Question Hour while responding to Supplementary queries.

He also mentioned that the data on hacking placed before the Upper House is substantially related to financial fraud. The RBI is already looking into cases of frauds involving transaction of above Rs one lakh.

"We are working with the RBI to look into frauds involving transaction below Rs one lakh amount," he said.
Till September of this fiscal, about 921 cases of frauds amounting Rs 40.34 crore involving ATM/debit cards, credit cards and internet banking frauds were reported.

In the previous fiscal, 2,059 cases of fraud involving Rs 109.56 crore were reported, Prasad said citing the data provided by the RBI.

In view of the "dynamic nature of information and technology and emerging cyber threats, continuous efforts are required to be made by owners and users to protect netoworks and data by way of deploying appropriate security controls," he added.

To a supplementary query on steps taken to curb hacking of data from social networking sites, Prasad said, "Today, India will not bow down to the new imperialism. We took action against Facebook the moment we received the complaint."

A Financial Data Protection bill has been drafted that aims to address all these issue, he said.

The Minister also said there are problems because of uncertainty of cyber world. However, the government conducts security drills and has also set up centres to provide protection.