There’s no one to blame if your ATM hands you a fake note!

What do you do if you find a counterfeit note while withdrawing money from an ATM? You may be shocked to learn this, but there is little you can do. Forget about losing money, you could even be booked for cheating or possessing a counterfeit note. This is what norms of several banks say. “There is absolutely no defined mechanism to fix the responsibility or to check the veracity of counterfeit note claims from the customers,” a top RBI official from Mumbai said. The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that ATMs are rapidly emerging as an alternative to bank branches and currently there are 31,000 ATMs across the country. These ATMs on average register 300 transactions a day. The number of counterfeit Rs 500 notes had gone up from 12,014 in 2005-06 to 25,636 in 2006-07. “We take our own precautions. But if something is suggested or designed, we will be happy to implement,” Mr B. Samba Murthy, CMD, Corporation Bank said.