Mumbai: Is cheque cloning the new con in town?

Hutoxi Panthaki, a businesswoman

A businesswoman from Dadar received an SMS from HDFC Bank on Wednesday evening, informing her that over Rs 47,000 had been debited from her current account through cheque. Unlike other text messages from her bank, this bewildered her, as she had not issued any cheque. Hutoxi Panthaki checked her chequebook and found all the leaves intact.

She suspect that someone not only cloned her cheque, but also forged her signature. "I rushed to the bank the next day. The staff there initially insisted that I must have issued the cheque in the name of Mithon Kumar. The bank staff was convinced only after I showed them the blank leaves of my chequebook," she told mid-day.

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The bank staff showed her the copy of the issued cheque on laptop, she said. "They told me that they had found out where the cheque was deposited, so there was no need for me to file a police complaint." The bank in whose branch the money was deposited has credited R47,201 back to her account.

A spokesperson of the HDFC Bank told mid-day, "A physical cheque was presented under Cheque Truncation System to another bank... We will go to the police after some verification, and have also asked Panthaki to file a police complaint."