Mr. Kannan sat across the desk waiting for the transaction to be completed. Anu diligently tapped away at the keyboard before she looked up and frowned.
“Sir, I am sorry but your signatures do not match. Can you please sign a new cheque leaf?”
“Oh, is it? I have not used this account for almost 4 years now; I have forgotten how I have signed. Can you please help me?”
“Sure sir, but first can I ask you some verification questions?”
Mr. Kannan nodded. She proceeded with the usual questions, date of birth, mother’s maiden name, ID proof etc and then smiled satisfied with the answers.
“Sir, let me show you how you have signed.” She turned the monitor to face the customer so that he could see his signature in the computer.
“Yeah I remember now, there’s not much of a difference but thanks for your help Ms. Anu. I’ll be happy to sign again.”
“Sir could you kindly use a fresh cheque leaf, overwriting is not allowed. I’ll destroy this one.”
She tore a cheque leaf and threw it in the dustbin. Simultaneously she deactivated the mobile alert in his account. He would not receive alerts for any transaction henceforth.
The transaction was completed and Mr. Kannan got up to leave, satisfied.
“When will you be back sir?” she asked innocently.
“I am leaving tomorrow and I guess it will be another 4 years before I can come back to India again.” he smiled.
“If you need any help with your account, you can call me anytime sir, I’ll be glad to help.” She offered her contact number.
After Mr. Kannan left, she checked his account to see the balance. ‘Six lakhs!’ she beamed. She saw that he had never used this account for any transactions while he was out of the country. He had just used it in case he needed cash during his visit to India. She filled the amount in the cheque leaf he had signed a moment earlier. The cheque leaf she had pretended to destroy but had destroyed one of her own instead. She tucked it into her purse and smiled. She transferred the amount two days later into her fake account. Then she withdrew the money in parts and deposited it in an account with another bank.
………………………………………
Mr. Kannan had been her first victim and it would a long time before he found out about the fraud and complained. Any which way, she could never be implicated in the fraud. Ravi had ensured that both of them were never officially involved in the transactions. Every transaction had needed to be entered by an employee of the officer grade and verified by a senior officer. Ravi had ensured that he had got the transactions verified using his colleagues id’s and password and Anu had ensured to do the same. They never used their own id’s for the transactions lest their fraud be caught in the future. They had carried out this routine several times in the past eight months. They had accumulated a huge sum of money and this would be the very last transaction before they quit their job in the bank.
