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Plastic fuels petrol fraud

Srikala B.

BANGALORE, March 30

DIE-HARD critics of plastic money should love this story.

One of the credit card issuing companies had an unusual customer in its data base. The customer was using up nearly 1,000 litres of petrol every month and, of course, was using his credit card for paying the gas station. When the bank carried out a routi ne check on the customer, he didn't even have a four-wheeler.

``We realised that only a truck operator could have used up that kind of fuel,'' said a source at the credit card company, and the bank was quick to realise that all was not well with the customer.

On investigation, it was discovered that the customer had a nexus with the gas station. He was actually procuring fake bills for large quantities of petrol without actually buying the fuel. It was later discovered that the gas station was passing on a pe rcentage of the bill amount to the cardholder after getting it reimbursed from the bank (credit card issuer).

The credit card issuer is understood to have promptly hot-listed the customer for the fraudulent dealings. If you thought credit cards build only debt traps, its time to change your opinion!