Eatery owner loses Rs 48,000 to fraudster who asked to update UPI on phone

BENGALURU: Users of UPI’s QR Code scanner, mainly shop owners may need to be more careful while using the online transaction apps. A fraudster or a gang has landed in the city and misused the UPI scanner on the pretext of updating it. A small eatery owner lost Rs 48,000 of his hard-earned money to the scamsters.

The fraud came to light when the owner lodged a complaint at the Chandra Layout police station. The transaction was made with the accounts in the name of Musharraf Khan and Mohammad Siraj, revealed in the probe.

An unknown person came to Bhaskar’s tiffin centre at 12 noon on last Thursday. Bhaskar said, “A person came to our eatery and said my Paytm scanner is not updated. Then he took the mobile saying that he would update. After getting the mobile, he did something through UPI and sent himself Re 1. Then he said the scanner would be updated at 12.30 pm. As soon as he left, I got a message about a debit Rs 18,000 and again Rs 30,000 from my bank account. I came to know I was cheated after I received the debit messages on my mobile phone”.

The gang/fraudster are/is targeting those who do not know about UPI. The fraudsters make note of the UPI service provider and then introduce themselves as its agents. They convince the user that the UPI scanner is not updated and state that if it is not updated now, transactions will not go through. Merchants who don’t know about the fraud will easily hand over their mobile phones to them and end up getting cheated.

Cyber security experts pointed out that when someone asks to update the QR code, users should check the messages on their mobile phone. A message is received on the mobile when money is paid by a customer. If there is a problem with the bank to which the UPI number is linked, the fund transfer will not take place. If there is a transfer message on the mobile, it means that there is no problem with the QR code, they noted.