Woman claims ₹42,000 credit card fraud, says bank declined liability despite quick report

A woman’s account of an alleged credit card fraud has sparked a wider conversation on banking safeguards and customer support after she claimed her father lost thousands of rupees despite reporting the issue within hours.

Taking to X, Ishika Kesarwani said her father’s phone appeared to have been compromised, with multiple OTP alerts flooding in late at night. By morning, ₹42,000 had allegedly been debited from his credit card.

According to her post, the card was blocked as soon as the family realised what was happening, but the transactions had already gone through. The credit card, she said, was issued by RBL Bank, and the disputed payments were later traced to PlayStation gift cards purchased via Flipkart.

“We reported it within an hour, to the bank and to cybercrime, believing that acting fast would help,” Ishika wrote. However, days later, she claimed the bank informed them that the incident was not being treated as card or credit fraud and that no recovery was possible.

Her post questioned the effectiveness of real-time fraud monitoring systems and customer grievance mechanisms. “What is the point of fraud monitoring if the bank can’t detect or stop an obvious fraud in real time?” she asked, tagging the bank in her tweet.

“Low-key glad this post got some traction. If that wasn’t the case, we probably would’ve just been ignored and had the case closed,” she wrote, adding that she still had “low hopes”.

One user suggested the phone may have been compromised through screen-mirroring or a conference call triggered by a scammer. Ishika responded that no suspicious links were clicked and said the last legitimate transaction on the card had been made on IRCTC, after which the OTP alerts began almost immediately.

Others advised contacting Flipkart directly to halt or cancel the gift card purchases, while some recommended preventive steps such as setting low daily transaction limits on cards.

The incident has renewed online debate over consumer protection in cases of digital fraud and the responsibility of banks and platforms when unauthorised transactions occur, especially when complaints are raised promptly.

Neither the bank nor the e-commerce platform has issued a detailed public statement addressing the specific claims at the time of writing.