Why has ICICI Bank randomly done a Total Freeze on my Account?

[kuchrm]

If you withdraw in cash and deposit big amount in other bank account then you will get query from ITD.

Not till 10L cash credit

 

[desiviru]

Not till 10L cash credit

And also 2L+ in one txn. One can not deposit more than 2L in single txn. If 10L in same month then also bank alerts CBDT.

 

[Premiumcards]

Just got a message stating We have marked a freeze on your ICICI Bank Acc XX on 29-Jan-25 due to Regulatory/Other reasons. For details, visit nearest Branch or call Customer Care.

This message came at 2:50 PM - which was too late to head to the branch that closes at 3 PM.

Obviously, customer care was not helpful, other than stating that the account is in "total freeze", not "debit freeze" - thanks, that makes me feel so much better.

The chatbot in netbanking was slightly better, it said that the account is frozen because of "unusual transactions". When asked what these transactions were, they said I have to visit a branch.

This is an ICICI Wealth Management account I opened in 2021 with an initial funding of 5 Lakh rupees, which made it a zero balance account from the get-go. I use it only for UPI transactions. I also have an ICICI Rupay CC for UPI, and I use this account to pay its bill. In fact, I cleared the latest bill just yesterday.

What have I done wrong here? For what it's worth - the balance in the account is currently Rs. 0.

Same issue caused to me today, I opened ICICI Private banking on 20-May-25, on 21-May-25 I transfered 5L from my Yes Bank, HDFC Bank through Payzapp self transfer and from Payzapp wallet in multiples of 1 lakh and 20K. On 22-May-25, I had to get 16.5k from my mother account, so she transferred in multiples of 2k, through scanner and today I received message that account is freeze, because unusual transaction from multiple banks. I received msg at 4pm, visit branch and RM, later Branch manager. Branch manager was like why are you doing small payments like 1 rupees, I told her it was done to check whether funds are transferring or not. She was super angry as if I have transferred money from her bank amount.

 

[desiviru]

Same issue caused to me today, I opened ICICI Private banking on 20-May-25, on 21-May-25 I transfered 5L from my Yes Bank, HDFC Bank through Payzapp self transfer and from Payzapp wallet in multiples of 1 lakh and 20K. On 22-May-25, I had to get 16.5k from my mother account, so she transferred in multiples of 2k, through scanner and today I received message that account is freeze, because unusual transaction from multiple banks. I received msg at 4pm, visit branch and RM, later Branch manager. Branch manager was like why are you doing small payments like 1 rupees, I told her it was done to check whether funds are transferring or not. She was super angry as if I have transferred money from her bank amount.

They have all the rights to be angry. Systems are desigined in such a way that such txns are assumed fraudulent acitivity. Banks have system in checks and Rs.1 txn is invloved in many kind of frauds these days.

People may blame banks for everything but at same time when people lose money to frauds they ask banks to return from their own pockets. Ab kya kre woh. System ko bandd karde? Ab kon normal account holder itney txns karega ek din mein? Mujhe koi 10000, 10 txn mein bhejega toh mai bhi uspe shaq hi karunga.

System don't know whether you receiving money from father or mother or your relatives.

 

[Premiumcards]

They have all the rights to be angry. Systems are desigined in such a way that such txns are assumed fraudulent acitivity. Banks have system in checks and Rs.1 txn is invloved in many kind of frauds these days.

People may blame banks for everything but at same time when people lose money to frauds they ask banks to return from their own pockets. Ab kya kre woh. System ko bandd karde? Ab kon normal account holder itney txns karega ek din mein? Mujhe koi 10000, 10 txn mein bhejega toh mai bhi uspe shaq hi karunga.

System don't know whether you receiving money from father or mother or your relatives.

yes right

1RS- IMPS - written as myname_hdfcbank/imps - something like this - i did this to check
2 LAC - IMPS
1 RS - checking with UPI
1.99 LAC - UPI FROM OTHER BANKS - myname_idfc
1 LAC - FROM PAYZAPP WALLET - my number@pz/payzapp

Most of the transactions have my name.
SHE SAID DON'T USE, PAYZAPP OR GOOGLE PAY SELF TRANSFER FEATURE. ONLY DO TRANSACTIONS VIA CHEQUE OR RTGS. SO I DELETED ICICI UPI FROM PAYZAPP

 

[Fini7777]

yes right

1RS- IMPS - written as myname_hdfcbank/imps - something like this - i did this to check
2 LAC - IMPS
1 RS - checking with UPI
1.99 LAC - UPI FROM OTHER BANKS - myname_idfc
1 LAC - FROM PAYZAPP WALLET - my number@pz/payzapp

Most of the transactions have my name.
SHE SAID DON'T USE, PAYZAPP OR GOOGLE PAY SELF TRANSFER FEATURE. ONLY DO TRANSACTIONS VIA CHEQUE OR RTGS. SO I DELETED ICICI UPI FROM PAYZAPP

I recently opened icici acc
During acc opening itself my RM informed not to use UPI heavily as many acc r getting freezed
So, currently using IMPS

Many banks r doing this nowadays with new accounts

So, use IMPS/NEFT/RTGS to be in a safer side

 

[Fini7777]

Tbh, banks should also take responsibility here,

Nowadays we heavily rely on UPI and it's our primary mode of payment everywhere A normal person usually make around 5-10 payments in a day easily, maybe to multiple accs and receive money in the same way

In a Parallel way, fraudulent activities are aldo increasing
I think banks should think about this and design their algorithms appropriately.

Don't know whether they r really freezing the real suspicious accounts but many genuine ppl r facing this issue Nowadays.

 

[PrinceHeart]

I think its the dhobi wala 🥸

 

[sunit123]

Tbh, banks should also take responsibility here,

Nowadays we heavily rely on UPI and it's our primary mode of payment everywhere A normal person usually make around 5-10 payments in a day easily, maybe to multiple accs and receive money in the same way

In a Parallel way, fraudulent activities are aldo increasing
I think banks should think about this and design their algorithms appropriately.

Don't know whether they r really freezing the real suspicious accounts but many genuine ppl r facing this issue Nowadays.

5/10 transactions are not an issue....issue is money rotation...payzapp etc are used for money rotation...they are tagged as suspicuous....if you do nultiple transaction from suspicious upi id, your account will be blocked...

I am happy banks targeting system misusers and abusers.

 

[desiviru]

I recently opened icici acc
During acc opening itself my RM informed not to use UPI heavily as many acc r getting freezed
So, currently using IMPS

Many banks r doing this nowadays with new accounts

So, use IMPS/NEFT/RTGS to be in a safer side

You are right. First of all new account holders these days and many people who have reported such thing happening to them have opened the account and started doing large amount txns within few hours of getting it activated.

Those who open account for fraud txns and money cicrulation do the same thing. They open account, put much amount and then reach bank to close account. Many unknown people are used in scams who are given money to open bank account and then frausters manage these accounts.

Due to scamsters and fraudsters everywhere, common people are suffering. Most of these people are from Bangladesh and other countries and from one special community only. These people also indulge others and make them do wrong.

Secondly, doing heavy UPI txns, credit or debit or many number of txns in new accounts lead to account restrictions. Even after having 25 years old account we still use them in a certain way. Moreover if current month txns are much more than previous month or previous three months txns even them system put it under suspicious activity which is right thing to do.

A system can never know whether txn is genuine or not but banks will always have to bear the loss if txn was actually fraudulent and if they fail to restrict the account.