Page 44 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

The two old paid cheques were taken out and it was found that signatures
on them were clearly different. I had passed one small amount cheque
for Rs. 700/- and informed that I had done so based on verbal advice of
our Agriculture Field Officer. The Deposit In-charge had passed the large
amount cheque for Rs. 100,000/- exactly under the same situation on
the advice of the Agriculture Field Officer.
In fact, he should not have paid a large amount cheque without correct
signature even on the advice of Agriculture Field Officer. The Agriculture
Field Officer confirmed that the presenter of the cheque who took the
money, was in fact Rajpal and he did not confirm the correctness of the
signature of the account holder. The customer's authority on the cheque
is verified from correctness or authenticity of signatures. It was a clear
mistake of the bank officers. The branch head told the lady, "The case is
very simple. Culprit is identified. We can call the police now who will
recover the money from Rajpal."

She immediately pleaded "Please do not file the police complaint as Rajpal
is my only son. I shall settle the issue with him within the family". She was
requested to close the account and write a receipt for full and final settlement
of the balance amount of the account which she did immediately.

I realized that the fraudster had actually tested his trick with small amount
cheque. On succeeding, he replicated the same with bigger amount. Had
he not been the son of this benevolent lady, we were liable to
compensate the customer for such amounts. Both of us felt greatly
relieved on tactfully peaceful resolution of the issue.

Insights from the episode
1. We need to differentiate between amounts of risk in the transaction.
Same risk cannot be taken for bigger amounts.
A small negligence may lead to much larger negligence on the same
basis with larger implications.

2. The first wrong decision may embolden the fraudster to go for
bigger fraud.
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