Danger Online! Fraud Link Can Empty Your A/C

With 150 Cases in the Last 3 Months, Capital Becomes a Hunting Ground for Cheats Hacking Into Electronic Payment Interfaces

- Ajay Kumar

On September 13, Mukherjee Nagar resident Rajiv Verma lost Rs 5,000 from his bank account as soon as he clicked on a link purportedly sent by a prospective buyer of a treadmill that he had put up for sale at an online marketplace. On September 9, Nitya Srivastava, a businessman from Mayur Vihar Extension, lost Rs 10,680 from his account after he clicked twice on links sent to him by a man posing as an employee of an e-wallet firm.

In the third week of August, Salim Khan, a businessman from Shaheen Bagh, lost Rs 12,500 by clicking on links that he got from prospective customers within minutes of posting an advertisement to sell his sofa on a website.

Over the past few months, online classifieds portals using UPI (Unified Payments Interface) for transactions have witnessed a spurt in cases of Turn to fraud. The police have registered 150 cases involving UPI frauds in the last three months alone.

The striking similarity in all these frauds is that UPI is being hijacked by conmen and hackers to siphon off hard-earned money of unsuspecting users.

UPI enables bank account-holders to send and receive money using a PIN or a Unique ID-Virtual Payment Address (VPA). As soon as these products are advertised, the fraudsters pose as prospective buyers on these online platforms and engage with the seller on the phone. They make the seller transfer the money using the ‘request money’ option in the apps.

SITTING DUCKS