Shocking information has come to light about a data breach involving Yes Bank prepaid forex cards. While the IDFC First Bank fraud case is still fresh, Yes Bank consumers have now become victims of cyber fraud. The bank’s Fraud Monitoring System detected a sudden spike in declines or rejections on multi-currency prepaid forex cards issued with BookMyForex. Investigation revealed that hackers had used the Bank Identification Number (BIN) to carry out transactions without customer authorisation.
The illegal transactions took place between 3.30 am and 8.30 am (IST) on February 24. These transactions were routed through 15 merchants in Latin American countries. In countries such as Brazil, OTPs or two-factor authentication are not required for online shopping, which hackers exploited.
Around 5,000 customer cards were compromised in this fraud. The hackers used a BIN attack technique, in which software predicts the remaining digits of a card number, along with the expiry date and CVV, based on the first 6-8 digits. Once an active card number is identified, it is used to make large transactions.
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The hackers intentionally chose the early-morning hours between 3.30 am and 8.30 am, when most Indians are asleep and unlikely to notice transaction alerts. As the matter came to light, customers lodged complaints on social media platforms such as X and Reddit. A total of about Rs 2.55 crore was reportedly stolen in the incident.
Taking note of the data breach, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has summoned senior Yes Bank officials. The bank said losses of the 5,000 affected customers will be compensated through chargebacks. As a precaution, the bank has blocked payment facilities on select foreign websites and stepped up monitoring on about 1.9 lakh cards.
A forex card is not directly linked to a bank account. It is mainly used while travelling abroad. Users can load foreign currencies such as dollars, euros or pounds from India itself. Indian debit or credit cards typically attract a 3–5 percent markup fee when used overseas, but forex cards either waive this fee or charge a minimal amount.