Some banks TOI spoke to, though, assure consumers that they do investigate cases of fraud before a card is blocked. Says Sachin Khandelwal, head cards group at ICICI Bank, "We give a chance to the customer to prove his innocence. We get the verification done.'' Parag Rao, head-cards at HDFC Bank, too says: "Our risk investigation team does necessary investigation.'' And R L Prasad, headcards at Standard Chartered Bank, says: "Based on relationship grounds, previous history and track record, we do take a sympathetic view... We do verify.''

But, the Delhi banker says this is a subjective manner of dealing with fraud cases. "There are no uniform guidelines on the subject.'' Banks, on their part, also have a system of checks in place to avoid frauds. As reported earlier in these columns, banks' risk management systems highlight transactions that are out of character with the cardholder's usage pattern. The consumer can expect a call or an SMS to verify whether a particular--and especially a high-value--transaction is valid. However, there are times when such communication gets delayed or even fails, and a consumer ends up losing precious time.

To avoid the worst, a senior banker--who himself had his card stolen some time ago--gives practical advice to consumers: Save both the card and helpline numbers on your cellphone. This helps them report the loss, if any, as soon as possible. "I myself could phone the bank in half a minute of the loss.''