A Pune-based audit firm lost close to Rs 79 lakh to cyber fraudsters after they managed to get a duplicate SIM card issued in place of the firm's own registered mobile number, and used it to intercept the OTPs meant to protect its bank account. According to a report by the Times of India, an adjudicating authority under the Information Technology Act, 2000 has now held Bank of India primarily responsible for the loss and ordered it to pay compensation with a decade's worth of interest attached.
The order relates to a 2015 cyber fraud in which G D Apte & Co, a Pune-based chartered accountancy and audit firm, saw its accounts at Bank of India drained through a series of unauthorised transactions carried out over a single day. The authority has directed the bank to pay Rs 64.44 lakh along with 12% annual interest, a figure that, once calculated over ten years, brings the total payout to nearly Rs 1.5 crore.
