HDFC Bank — HDFC deliberately allowed a fraudulent transaction to go through

Address:

Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

My cousin (who stays in the U.S.) sent me a link via email to a site that sells some weight reduction drops. I made this huge stupid foolish mistake clicking that link and buying a monthly weight loss program of 45 days online on that site. I made the transaction on Sunday afternoon in India. The only good thing I did was to write to my cousin asking her if she had tried this product. I heard from her next morning (Monday) saying she never sent any such email. Her account was hacked and these emails were sent to her entire contact list.

I immediately called the bank (credit card division) and reported this incident. What follows is incredible!!! They said that since my account was debited they cannot charge my card back. Well, till then it was fine with me as I presumed that the transaction has fully gone through. Then something struck me and I asked this bank lady on the other side, if the vendor had already received the credit/money, to which, she said no. She said that only my account had been debited yet but the vendor's account was not credited yet.

You won’t believe I spoke with at least 3 managers after putting a mammoth of effort and wasting at least 30 minutes of talk time on 'call waiting' and 'convincing' them not to go ahead with the credit as the vendor is a fraud. But they would not listen. They said they have to go ahead with the credit per the 'process'.

They said I could download a credit card dispute form on their site and lodge an application and they will inform the status of my application in 4 days. I told them that by that time, the fraudulent vendor will get his money and both the Bank and I would be chasing him. However, they didn't seem to bother about that.

Now I am wondering that I at least did what I did in unawareness but what the HDFC guys were doing was in their full awareness. I told them beforehand, not to go ahead with the credit but they said they have to credit the fraudulent vendor's account as it is a part of their process.

Wondering why one needs to pass banking exams to get into a bank. Worse, why do banks hire MBAs? Maybe they feel that if an MBA gives a customer crap on the other side of the phone, it may look less crappish...