The customer, who maintains an account with SVC Bank’s Mumbai branch, visited the Ahmedabad branch on Friday to make an urgent RTGS transfer. Sensing that he appeared frightened and distressed, the Assistant Branch Manager, Mr. Dipkumar A. Sagar, paused the transaction and spoke to him.

The conversation revealed that the customer had been under pressure from fraudsters for nearly a week. He had been instructed to liquidate his savings and remit the funds. The customer had already redeemed a substantial portion of his mutual fund investments and savings linked to his SVC Bank account. He had also been instructed to withdraw savings of around ₹4 lakh held in another account with a large public sector bank.

Ravinder Singh, Managing Director, SVC Co-operative Bank Ltd., said: “At SVC Bank, we believe in being there for our customers, especially when they need us most. In this instance, the alertness of our Ahmedabad branch team helped us recognise the signs of a digital arrest scam and intervene before a customer’s lifelong savings were lost. This is what being a trusted banking partner means to us.”

The branch team counselled the customer, stopped the transaction and is assisting him in filing a police and cybercrime complaint. The incident highlights the importance of alert banking staff in identifying signs of financial fraud, particularly when vulnerable customers are being pressured into making urgent transactions.

SVC Bank urges customers to remain alert to unsolicited calls or messages from individuals posing as police officers, government officials or other authorities, and to immediately report any suspicious communication to their bank and the cybercrime authorities.

Highlighting India’s digital transformation over the past 11 years, Shah said internet users have risen from 250 million to over 1 billion, broadband connections have expanded nearly 16-fold to cross 1 billion, and data costs have fallen by 97 per cent. Under BharatNet, connectivity has grown from 546 village panchayats to over 2 lakh, while digital payments surged to more than 181 billion UPI transactions worth over Rs 233 trillion in 2024 alone. Warning that cybercrime has evolved from individual acts to organised, institutionalised networks using advanced technologies, he outlined a multi-dimensional strategy focused on real-time reporting, robust forensics, capacity building, R&D, cyber awareness and hygiene. Shah stressed the role of the CBI and NIA in tackling cross-border cybercrime and flagged lapses in digital evidence custody as a major hurdle to convictions. He urged faster response through the 1930 helpline, stronger bank-I4C coordination and proactive action against fraudulent call centres to prevent cyber fraud from escalating into a national crisis.