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The Bombay High Court has directed the Bank of Baroda to refund 1.24 crore stolen as a result of a complex SIM-swap fraud. The court also stressed that customers have zero liability in circumstances where they promptly notify companies about unauthorized transactions and they have no negligence.

The fraudsters had replaced the SIM card of the victim, intercepting OTPs and emptying the account through internet banking. The bank claimed it issued warnings, but the court refused it and added that SIM cloning ensures that customers do not receive any alerts.

The High Court issued orders to BoB to refund all the money at 6% interest within eight weeks. This has been the latest order in similar orders against banks in other cyber fraud cases recently, sending a good message to the banks that they need to tighten their security and that they cannot (they should not) shift the blame onto the victims as additional cyber fraud cases keep rising annually.

The decision is likely to help restore the trust of digital banking customers and put financial institutions on their toes to establish more effective fraud control systems.