It happened in North India. Nowadays almost all banks here outsource their customer care section to private agencies assuming that customers’ data would be safe in their hands. There was this woman who worked for a bank’s customer care agency. Her husband forced her to collect details of all non-operational accounts from bank records. He is a scammer and upon receiving the data he chose one account that was non-operational for quite a long period time (more than 5 years) and there was pretty good money lying in that. He managed to change the address and everything, got a new debit card and finally withdrew a major part of the fund. It is easy as the customer is no more dealing with that account. Nobody knows whether the customer is alive or dead. In fact the account was that of a deceased old man and his son was abroad. One day the son came back to India and he tried to check the account as the father already told him earlier about that account. He could not use his debit card and informed this to bank authorities. Then everything became pretty clear to them. They managed to follow the links through customer care call register and finally managed to catch the culprits. So it is advisable to check your accounts at regular intervals, especially if you got money in that.
I am not surprised because that is possible with the help of insiders. I feel a person while going abroad should keep his mobile active (international roaming) because if anything changes in your bank account is immediately informed via a SMS. If you have no SMS facility working for you then you should login to your account and check it regularly.
In the Philippines, the so called dormancy of bank accounts is only 1 year for savings account and 2 years for checking account. Leaving your bank account stagnant for that period of time will make you lose everything. And I agree that you have to use your bank account regularly. In this age of ATM, it is best to use your ATM card like a wallet where you withdraw money only when you need it. That way, you can have your bank account active and be safe from being dormant.
I haven't heard of anything like that happening here in the Philippines but what I do know is that CC companies and Telcos do sell your contact details to 3rd party and allowed them to contact you in whatever means possible just for you to pay them. They even threaten customers that they will have an Attorney to file a lawsuit if you don't pay. I haven't experienced this myself but people I know do.
Oh no that's a terrible experience for that young man. This is onene reason I always like checking my account periodically. I hardly trust any of the bank workers. The man and his wife should vomit that money back after which they should go and spend the rest of their lives in jail. Their properties should be confiscated.
In India they need a transaction every six month otherwise a certain fee is charged and if there is not enough amount balance the account is liable to be closed. I think that is rightly so because the banks have to maintain, calculate and carry forward which in itself is a costly affair.
@Ray1 I can't understand why they would go to that extreme to close a customer's account without their express permission. Is it not wiser to deactivate the account instead.
I have learned a big lesson for neglecting or leaving my bank account dormant for several years. The bank where I maintained my account ran over my account and they have found out that it has remained untouched or inactivate for many years. They sent me a notice and with a complete computation of the charges imposed to dormant account. So every time I open a bank account, I see to it that it is always updated for I don't want to repeat that mistake or being negligent of leaving my account. Or else I have to close it to be safe than to leave it dormant.
@Nakitakona Yes according to Indian banking rules if you do not carry out any transaction for 24 months through your bank account, it can be closed/frozen. This is in line with the Reserve Bank of India rule that a bank account automatically gets dormant if inactive for two years or no transactions for that period. You need any debit or credit transactions or a third-party deposits so it's better to open a FD with quarterly interest direct to your account .
I agree with @Ray1. If you for some reason can't use your account for that long then better fd and allow automated transactions. Besides to keep an account active there is minimum amount that you may have to maintain. If you have more than ond account you can actually set up an automated transactions among them on rotational basis just to keep the accounts alive.
I maintain several accounts spread out in different banks for specific purposes. I make sure that I perform transactions on the bank accounts regularly. Banks have different rules as to when an account becomes dormant then they charge a fixed amount every month until the fund is fully exhausted. It is eventually closed when the balances reaches zero. Once dormant, the customer has to appear at the bank to reactivate the account. He can either deposit or make withdrawals. What happened in North India can happen anywhere whether or not customer service is outsourced. Hence, we have to be vigilant about our own financial affairs. In my country, some scammers have also managed to make use of unused social security funds of some members by taking out a loan in their name. These cases happened with the help of insiders. Likewise, some members lost a few months/years of their contributions when the agency changed its numbering system. Some found this out only when filing for retirement claims. Fortunately, it is now easier to keep track of contributions now that they're accessible online.
Always a good idea to check your account at least once in a week if you live around, if abroad say once a month is fine. This will enable the holder be abreast with the transactions taking place. In this era of internet banking this is quite easy to do. On the other hand if you going to be away for months or years you can mandate your bank to debit freeze your account for that period. This way no one can fraudulently make a withdrawal from your account.