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Beware of this UPI fraud, you could lose your hard-earned money

IamCheated.com Research Team | July 25, 2019  6:25:pm

Beware of this UPI fraud, you could lose your hard-earned money

As the number of people using online payments is on the rise, online frauds too increase. Nowadays, online payments are used at most of the places. Be it shopping online, booking tickets or paying utility bills, we prefer doing it online.

While a lot of people prefer online payments, fraudsters are taking advantage of the situation and cheating innocent people out of their hard-earned money.  So, you have to be really careful while transacting online. A single mistake can prove very costly. 

In this blog, we will discuss how a person lost Rs 22,000 to UPI fraud and tips to avoid such frauds.

See Also: What to do if Cheated while Transferring Money using UPI Apps?

Here is what exactly happened

An IT professional from Mumbai had ordered shoes worth Rs 1,500 from an online shopping portal. Instead of delivering the product which he had ordered, the portal delivered children shoes. As he wanted to return the product, he googled the customer care number of the online shopping portal. Unfortunately, the number which came up on Google was operated by the fraudsters.

The person who picked up the call introduced himself as a representative of the online shopping portal and asked the victim to explain his problem. After he explained the problem, the fraudster asked the victim if he has made an online payment. When he replied in the affirmative, the fraudster asked him to share the last six digits of his card and the expiry date.

After the victim shared the card number and expiry date, he received a text message which contained a long code with the prefix 'UPI’ on his phone. The fraudster called the victim and asked him to share the code, stating it was the product return code. Thinking this to be true, he shared the code which he had received on his mobile phone.

After he shared the code, he received a message from his bank, stating the bank account details had been added to the BHIM KBL UPI app. He got suspicious and transferred all his money to his wife's bank account. He even got his debit card blocked by calling up the customer care of the bank.

After 4 days he wanted to make some urgent payments, so he transferred all the money back to his account. Within 5 minutes of transferring money, five fraudulent transactions totaling Rs 21,700 in value, took place from his account to virtual payment addresses on UPI.

How to avoid this kind of fraud?

1. Do not rely on the customer care number which comes up on Google. Instead, you must visit the official website of the company and take the customer care number.

2. Never share your card number, expiry date, and CVV to anyone.

3. Do not click on the suspicious link or share the code which you receive through SMS.

See Also: How to Avoid Being a victim of UPI Frauds?

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