Mumbai: HSBC Bank has complained to the Azad Maidan police that it has been duped of Rs 1.26 crore. Apparently the alleged fraud was committed by the use of 38 credit cards which were issued without proper verification of documents. The complaint was lodged on Monday by the bank's vice-president (financial crime investigation), according to the police.

According to the FIR, the bank detected the fraud during an analysis of the usage of the credit cards issued by it and payments received against them within the usual 45-day window.

The bank also found that the credit cards were issued through an online platform and the customers exhausted the spending limit of some of the credit cards in the first month of issuance itself.

About 55 cards were obtained by submitting Aadhaar and PAN numbers that were generated by using forged documents. Of these, 38 were used to withdraw Rs 1.26 crore.

Internet Protocol (IP) addresses pointed out that the online applications for the credit cards were made in Assam but the customers were shown to be residents of Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru and Delhi.

Though there were insufficient addresses on the applications, the credit cards were nevertheless issued to the applicants. It is not clear how the cards were issued on the basis of insufficient addresses. The bank has blocked 17 of the 55 cards.

The case has been registered under the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act against unidentified persons. No arrests have been made yet. (With inputs from PTI)