Mumbai man spends Rs 9.1 crore on UK websites using SBI foreign travel card with Rs 13,000 limit, CBI files FIR

New Delhi: A Mumbai-resident allegedly spent $1.41 million (Rs 9.1 crore) on British e-commerce websites using a foreign travel card issued by the State Bank of India with a meagre spending limit of $200 (Rs 13,000) prompting the CBI to register an FIR on Monday, officials said. The SBI had filed a complaint with the CBI in this regard alleging that its NRI Seawoods branch in Navi Mumbai had issued a Foreign Travel Cards for which the prepaid application is provided by Yalamanchili Software Exports Ltd and database support resources are provided by MPhasis, they said. “On 28 February, 2017, the Chief Operating Officer of Yalamanchili Software Exports Ltd reported the incident to the bank,” the complaint said. [caption id=“attachment_918939” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] It came to the notice that balance in prepaid card system has been altered fraudulently for authorisation of three foreign travel cards belonging to a single individual, it said. “The authorisations have mainly happened over e-commerce web sites of four merchants and involve around 374 transactions amounting to $1.41 million. These transactions have happened over a period of three months– from 8 November, 2016 to 12 February, 2017,” it said. The bank alleged that card was issued by NRI Seawoods branch on 7 November, 2016 on which two more cards were issued to the card holder. “The cards were issued to one Sandeep Kumar Raghu Poojary for $200. Thereafter there was no load or reload on the cards. Transactions took place in the cards from 8 November, 2016 on four merchant sites as e-commerce transactions- Neteller.com, entropay, swiftvoucher and SKR Shrill.com,” it said. The bank alleged that all merchant transactions came via Visa with Merchant country code as Great Britain with the transaction and billing currency as USD. It is suspected that while transactions happened on the prepaid card system, the balance appear to have been altered manually via the Oracle Database access and post authorisation the settlement transaction and authorisation have been deleted from the prepaid card system including the general ledger entry and so the balance sheet generated on the prepaid card system did not get any difference, the bank has alleged. The CBI has booked Poojary and unidentified persons under charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and violation of the Information Technology Act.