Fraud in India involved several days of operations at the branch of the largest bank in the country, deceiving people and receiving money from them in exchange for promises of stable employment. Residents of the village of Shapura, located in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, were shocked to see the open branch of the State Bank of India in their remote village. Some were suspicious from the very beginning, but many saw this opportunity to secure stable employment.
One of them, 25-year-old Pinto Dorvi, along with six colleagues, managed to secure a position as a cashier in a recently opened branch, taking a bribe of 580,000 rupees ($6,900) for this. Despite the fact that they were missing from work when they were supposed to be present and the absence of employee identity documents, the SBI logo at the entrance, the 1,000-square-foot area of the building, brand new furniture, and bank working desks convinced him of the bank's legitimacy.
"There were 10 computers, and at the end of the shifts, we had access to the Internet and the signaling would work for an hour a day," Dorvi explained. During the last 10 consecutive days, six employees of the SBI bank in Shapura came to work only to mark time throughout the day.
The truth only came to light after a local resident filed a complaint with the police about strange responses received at the new bank, and the complete absence of an indication of the branch at the sign. Police officer Rajesh Patil reported that after an investigation, it became clear that the branch was a fake, and only some employees were hired with forged documents.
The fraudulent scheme involved deceiving many people for a total amount of about 1.2 million rupees ($14,300) in exchange for promises of stable employment in the State Bank of India from the side of a seemingly legitimate director. The police confirmed that none of the bank's clients were harmed. On one of the days, the director ceased to appear in the bank altogether.
When clients of the fake bank approached the local police, security personnel came with current SBI employees, and the employees became known that their workplace was a fraudulent setup. According to the newspaper "Indian Express," branch employees told residents coming to the bank that they could not carry out any transactions, as the seals were not established, and they asked to return next month. The branch director himself claimed that he would come in at 10 a.m. and leave for lunch. He advised them to visit the State Bank of India website and read information about the company and its protocols.
