Chandigarh: Online wallet fraud spikes, four more duped of Rs 2 lakh

CHANDIGARH: There seems to be no let-up in fraud cases pertaining to Paytm KYC update. Four more people were duped of around Rs 2 lakh on the pretext of updating Paytm KYC.
Pratosh Kumar Arora, a resident of Sector 37, reported to the police that he had received a call on his mobile phone and the caller introduced himself as a Paytm employee and asked his account details on the pretext of updating his KYC.

The complainant gave his account details to the accused who withdrew Rs 1 lakh from his account. Arora then blocked his bank account and submitted a complaint at the cyber cell in Sector 17.
Naman, a resident of Sector 44, reported to the police that he had received a message on his mobile phone regarding his Paytm KYC update and he was told to contact on two mobile numbers mentioned in the SMS.
Naman contacted them and requested them to update his Paytm KYC. On this, the fraudsters sent Naman some links and told him to fill his account details.
As the complainant filled details in the link and sent it back, he received two messages of deduction of Rs 25,000 each from his account.
Naman then contacted his bank officials and got his account blocked. He then filed a cheating complaint against unknown persons at the cyber cell.
Rashmi, a resident of Sector 11, reached the cyber cell with her complaint stating that online cheaters duped her of Rs 31, 500 on the pretext of updating her Paytm KYC, on Friday.
The cyber cell received another complaint from Akhil Malhotra of Sector 38 West. Akhil said he had received an SMS regarding Paytm KYC update. As he contacted the mobile number given in the SMS, the fraudsters sent him a link and the accused told him to do a transaction of Rs 5. Later, the fraudsters withdrew Rs 10, 361 from his bank account.
Giving details of the modus operandi of fraudsters, the cyber cell cops said fake messages asking Paytm users to update their KYC were being sent in bulk.
"These messages have contact numbers of swindlers. As people call on those numbers, they are asked to enter their bank account details in a link provided by them or to download some app for the purpose. As soon as an unsuspecting Paytm customer enters his bank details, all his information reaches cheaters. For the next few minutes, the swindlers keep the Paytm user engaged in talks while money is diverted to their accounts through multiple transactions. After the phone is disconnected, the customer finds messages of several withdrawal transactions," said the cops.
The cyber cell police said they had received around 90 complaints of Paytm frauds from October 2019 till February 28 this year.
In most of the cases, the police have registered FIRs.
Only awareness can protect people from being cheated. Paytm company do not send any SMS regarding update of KYC to their customers and people should not respond to such messages. The cyber-crime is on the rise and in two months, the cyber cell police have registered 18 FIRs. Last year, the cyber cell had registered 30 FIRs and 24 FIRs were registered in 2018.
Rashmi Yadav, DSP, CCIC, UT police, said, as per the IRB guidelines, Paytm was already sending messages to public for awareness.
"In each complaint, we inform the Paytm about fraud transactions. Paytm has blocked its services on Android which have apps like any desk or quick support installed. Besides, financial fraud awareness campaigns are being conducted from time to time people," said Yadav