A few days back a food delivery platform Swiggy had launched a new option called Swiggy Go. Swiggy Go is an instant pick up and drop service; which lets users send packages across the city. This service can be used to send food from home to office, pick up and drop off laundry, collect forgotten things and so on. This can even be used in business to deliver parcels to customers.
A controversy has hit "Swiggy Go" in the initial days of its launch in Bengaluru. A woman from Bengaluru had filed a police complaint saying that she has lost Rs 95,000 after calling the Swiggy Go helpline. But, she had actually called a fake Swiggy Go helpline. In this blog, we will discuss what exactly happened and how to avoid such frauds.
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A 47-year-old woman from Bengaluru wanted to sell her used smartphone. So, she posted an advertisement on the e-commerce platform, OLX. A person who was interested in buying the smartphone called her up and agreed to the prize she had quoted. To deliver the phone to the buyer, the woman raised a request on the Swiggy Go app.
After raising the request; a delivery boy went to the service center which she had mentioned at around 8.45pm and picked up the mobile phone. At 11 pm, the woman received a call from the buyer and he informed her that the delivery was canceled and he did not receive the phone.
The woman called up the delivery boy immediately and asked him about the phone. The delivery boy told the woman that he has kept the phone in the Swiggy office as the order was canceled. He asked her to call the Swiggy customer care to get the phone back.
As the woman didn't know the customer care number, she searched for it on Google and found one. When she called up that number, a person picked up the call and introduced himself as a customer care executive. To resolve the issue, the woman was asked to click on the link and pay Rs 3 to the Swiggy account. When she clicked on the link sent to her; she was taken to an online form where she entered her UPI PIN.
As soon as the form was submitted, she received a call from an unknown number and the caller asked her to send the updated link to five different numbers. Thinking this to be a procedure, she followed everything the fraudsters said. Soon after completing all the procedures, she received a message from her bank stating that Rs 95,000 was debited from her bank account.
The victim lost her money by calling the fake customer care number which was posted by fraudsters. Not just Swiggy, fraudsters have also posted fake customer care numbers for many other companies. The main intention of posting these numbers is to cheat people and wipe out money from their bank accounts. When customers call up these numbers; fraudsters use tricks and hack their bank accounts.
According to the Swiggy spokesperson, Aparna had given the incomplete delivery address and placed the order from her son’s number. She then removed his SIM and started using her number to place another order. As she was using a different mobile number, the delivery guy could not contact her.
The spokesperson had also said that the woman had been “cheated by somebody else, and not Swiggy”.
You should never search for the helpline numbers on Google. Not all the helpline numbers which come up on Google are genuine. Fraudsters post fake customer care numbers of reputed companies on fake websites created by them.
If you want to contact the Swiggy customer support team, you have to log in to the Swiggy app and click on the "Help" button. After you click on the help button, you must select the issue you are facing. Once you select the issue; you must either select the call option or the chat option. In the call option, there will be a helpline number which you must dial.
See Also: Man lost Rs 2.27 Lakh while ordering food online
1. Contact the bank
In case you are a victim of this kind of fraud, you should call your bank and get the bank account blocked to avoid fraudulent transactions in the future. This has to be done as soon as possible. If any fraudulent transaction takes place after you report the fraud, the bank will be responsible for the fraud.
2. File an FIR
When you lose money to online frauds, you must file an FIR at the nearest police station. The FIR you file will stand as an official record for the incident.
Not happy with a product or service? Just visit IndianMoney.com’s complaint portal IamCheated.com and post your issue. We’ll get in touch with the concerned entity and help you with the resolution. With an aim to spread awareness on fraudulent activities, we publish articles and videos on a regular basis. You can also publish reviews about companies on IamCheated.com
