It is all based on the way the machines read our fingerprints. Only a very few specific data points are stored by the machines and not the entire fingerprint itself(guess it is called minutiae). This loss of information increases the probability for false positives.
Funny what happens when you run before you can walk, but with any such technology, there would be false positives even when this gets improved significantly. At such a nascent stage, this is bound to happen.
Not to blame the victim, but this is an apt example of social engineering at work. The so-called 'educated' person in question is not too aware I guess. All the banking institutions send you a gazillion emails about not sharing your card information ever with any employee. In fact it has come to a point that the government of India runs TV ad campaigns regarding this on all the channels under the sun. So the ignorance of the victim is to blame for this as well.