The IT department of Rajasthan recently ordered the merged telecom service provider Vodafone Idea to pay a fine of Rs 27.5 lakh to a customer. The reason for slapping this fine is that one person claimed a duplicate SIM of another customer without any verification. The customer who received the SIM card due to the company’s mistake was able to withdraw a whopping Rs 68 lakh from the account of the first customer as the SIM card was linked to his overdraft facility.
Notably, the funds were transferred illegally from his account with the help of a duplicate cellphone SIM card that was issued by Vi. While the issuance of duplicate SIM cards requires several verifications, there has been poor verification of the ID proofs of the customer in this case.
Vi Issues Duplicate SIM To Wrong Customer
According to TOI, the case pertains to one Bhanu Pratap, who was given the duplicate SIM card that belonged to another customer. Using this situation, the former had transferred Rs 68.5 lakh from the latter’s IDBI Bank account to his accounts.
As per the report., Krishna Lal Nain, a Vi user’s mobile number, stopped working in May 2017. He visited the store of Vi in Hanumangarh and filed a complaint. He received a new number, but it was inactive despite numerous complaints. This is when he visited a Jaipur store and submitted the complaint to activate the SIM. It was then activated the next day. By this time, the accused got the duplicate SIM and transferred the above-mentioned amount illegally using OTPs.
Reportedly, the victim was able to access his SIM card five days after receiving it. Once it was activated, he received messages that money had been withdrawn from his account. This is when the customer complained about the incident and claimed Vi to compensate him under the IT Act.
A police case was registered, and the accused who withdrew the money was arrested. Of the Rs 68 lakh, he returned Rs 44 lakh to the customer. However, the remaining amount is pending, and the customer has filed another complaint about this under the IT Act.
Vi has been fined here for improper verification of the customer data and delay in the activation of the new SIM card.
