SBI Refund ATM Scam: According to the media reports, on July 9, 2025, the Delhi State Consumer Forum ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to return a customer’s entire money plus 10% annual interest after the bank unintentionally authorized a fraudulent ATM transaction 11 years prior.
A customer saw his bank card being used to make three unauthorized cash withdrawals at Guwahati Railway Station after the bank unintentionally authorized a fake ATM transaction.

How much will SBI pay the customer?

Following 11 years of submitting a formal complaint to the Delhi District Consumer Commission, the forum mandated that SBI pay a 10% annual interest rate from the fraud date (4 January 2014) to the realization period and ordered the State-run bank to pay ₹20,000, the entire refund amount.

According to the news source, on October 25, 2017, the Delhi District Consumer Commission further ordered SBI to reimburse the client ₹10,000 for the harassment and emotional distress he endured, as well as ₹5,000 for all legal costs. According to the 7 May 2025 order cited in the news report, the State Bank of India appealed to the Delhi State Consumer Forum following the district forum’s ruling. The forum ruled that the district consumer commission’s order was lawful and free of material irregularities and ordered the bank to pay the customer’s debt.

Customer Defrauded?

Panwar, an SBI client, took out cash from an ATM at the Guwahati Railway Station using his debit card. However, because the transaction was unsuccessful, his effort to withdraw ₹1,000 was also unsuccessful. According to the allegation, he then needed to visit a neighboring Indian Overseas Bank ATM to take out the cash. He thereafter received three SMS messages from SBI verifying that he had successfully made ATM cash withdrawals of ₹1,000, ₹20,000, and ₹1,000 using his bank card after boarding his train for Delhi. The news outlet claims that Panwar complained about the fraudulent transaction in his bank account after arriving in Delhi. The bank did not reply or take any action in response to an online complaint that asked SBI to release CCTV footage of the ATM.

Due to the first filing’s misplacement, Panwar filed two complaints with the RBI Banking Ombudsman after not hearing anything from the bank. He eventually complained to the Delhi District Consumer Forum about the lack of service and asked for a refund after he didn’t hear back. “The order commends the efficient customer who took prompt action in reporting an unauthorised transaction that was reported in the bank account but never received by the consumer,” Aakanksha Nehra, a partner at the law firm PSL Advocates & Solicitors, told the news portal. As per the media reports, Nehra stated that the secret to obtaining the money back through the legal process is to disclose such incidents as soon as possible.

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