Kol, Bengal have hotspots for fin fraud: Axis

Kolkata: Bengal, particularly Kolkata, houses several hotspots for fraudulent transactions, according to Gaurav Gupta, group head of financial crime intelligence at Axis Bank.Gupta was in the city alongside Sameer Shetty, group head of digital business, transformation, and strategic programmes, and Reynold D’Souza, group head of branch banking, to discuss the lender’s safe-banking initiatives.

He noted that the bank has significantly enhanced vigilance in these high-risk areas.According to Gupta, mule accounts—used by fraudsters to dupe victims and siphon money—are heavily concentrated in these hotspots. For Axis Bank, 80% of such accounts are concentrated in just 700 of its 6,200 branches nationwide. He added that districts bordering Bangladesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand see a higher density of these accounts, while other major hubs exist across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and the outskirts of Chennai.“These mule accounts are generally operated by syndicates and are mostly bought from individuals with idle accounts,” Gupta said.Shetty stated that the bank has adopted a series of measures to curb digital fraud. These include routing financial transaction OTPs through the bank’s proprietary app instead of standard SMS, and introducing facial recognition features modeled after the aviation sector’s DigiYatra. The bank has also launched a ‘lock FD’ feature that prevents the premature liquidation of fixed deposits held by senior citizens.Shetty claimed that Axis Bank witnessed a 4.5-fold increase in digital fraud prevention during 2025-26 compared to the previous fiscal year, driven primarily by AI-led monitoring systems.