Axis Bank credit card fiasco: Customers hit by fraudulent international transactions must act quickly to protect themselves

Numerous Axis Bank credit card holders have taken to social media to report fraudulent international transactions.

Axis Bank credit cards are in the news again, for the wrong reasons.

Scores of the bank's credit card customers reported fraudulent international transactions on their credit cards on March 26. Even those who had disabled international transactions got multiple messages asking them to activate the facility. “Transaction on Axis Bank Card no. XXXXX has been declined as international online usage is not enabled. Enable via control center on Axisbank.com/CCusage or call our customer service center,” read the message sent to card holders.

Many Axis Bank credit card holders took to social media to report such incidents.

In case you have an Axis Bank credit card, immediately disable your international usage and simply ignore messages/email alerts asking you to enable international online usage. Do not re-activate the facility until the issue has been sorted out.

Concerns are being raised about a possible data breach at Axis Bank leading  to this incident. However, Axis Bank has denied this. “There has been no breach of Axis Bank's systems,” Sanjeev Moghe, President and Head, Cards and Payments, Axis Bank, told Moneycontrol.

Moghe added that the bank believes this is a malicious attempt by certain merchants customers have reported as being unauthorised. “We have seen a few such transactions hitting our system, but they have affected only a few cards.  We have taken steps to block these transactions. These are international e-commerce transactions, hence they are not authenticated through the two-step authentication process,” says Moghe.

To report an unauthorised transaction that has taken place on your Axis Bank credit card, you can call Axis Bank credit card customer care at 1860 419 5555 and report the fraud or visit the nearest Axis Bank branch and report the fraudulent transaction involving your credit card.

“Some of these transactions are random attacks on certain cards. ⁠We would like to assure our customers that their cards are safe for use,” said Moghe.

Axis Bank card holders need to sign a customer dispute form with details of the fraudulent transaction. Also, you need to submit a signed ‘incident letter’ addressed to Axis Bank with all the details. The incident letter must contain information such as your account number, card number, and the date of the fraudulent transaction. You should also include details about possession of the credit card at the time of the fraudulent transaction and how the transaction came to your notice. It is important to retain screenshots of messages with details of fraudulent transactions.

Alongside, you should lodge a First Information Report (FIR) with the police in case the total transaction amount is Rs 20,000 or more. The FIR should mention the credit card number and transaction details. When the fraud has originated outside India (an international transaction) and you are in India at the time, an FIR is not required. But, if you happen to be travelling in the country where the fraudulent transaction took place, an FIR or suchlike from the local authority of that country will be required.

You also need to submit a copy of your passport while filing the complaint.

In case a fraudulent transaction has taken place, Axis Bank has advised customers to take immediate steps to block the credit card and reduce their liability.

If you block the card within three working days from the first fraudulent transaction there will be no customer liability. But if you block the card within four to seven working days then you might have to incur a loss of up to Rs 25,000. If you block the card beyond seven working days, you will have to bear the entire liability (refer to graphic on RBI guidelines).

“Our customers have full chargeback rights, and we will support the same on our side. We will work with our customers on the same,” says Moghe. A chargeback is the potential outcome of a disputed credit card transaction. The Axis Bank will review and accept the dispute, they will reverse the transaction, taking the funds back from the merchant and returning them to the cardholder.