[Gansan]

I use PayTM for FasTag and purchases from a couple of trusted shops through phone. I send my requirement by whatsapp, they invoice through PayTM and receive payment by taking an OTP which I read out over phone. Then they deliver the items to me. Very useful for the past nine months.

I keep Rs 1000 in the main wallet, Rs 150 in the Fastag wallet and Rs 5k in the bank a/c attached to the app. Never made any UPI payment so far. No hassles yet.

My college going son is a heavy user of Google pay. His attached account also holds only Rs 5k at any given time. From what I have seen Google pay seems to be the most secure.

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by nishantbhatia84

IMHO, this is what happened with the OP's friend:

1. Scammer calls claiming to be PayTM rep and says your KYC is incomplete and account will get disabled.
2. Scammer claims to fix this for which you need to install a certain app (Teams Viewer).
3. Once installed scammer takes control of your phone, (scams) talks you into loading funds into your PayTM account via GPay/netbanking, etc and since can see your screen also makes a note of your password / PIN.
4. Before you know what has happened you are already lighter by 25-50-100k!
5. Post the call the scammer will also attempt to login to your PayTM account to continue the scam.

I know this modus operandi is very common as someone in my family has been scammed this way! These scammers are smart and know their targets (senior citizens are most common).

The exact same thing happened to my father who is a Sr. citizen. He received a "urgent" call from PayTM support in order to avoid disabling the account.
He went through step [1] &[2] even installed an app (he didn't recollect the name) before better sense prevailed and he cut the conversation, uninstalled the app and contacted me.
Since we were unsure of what app was used, I did a hard reset to the phone.

It make me think that the user data is leaked (how else would they know that there was a PayTM account, with a bank account?), it so that they are better able to perform social engineering exploits.

[GTsunny]

Quikr scam alert!

Posted an ad on Quikr last night, within minutes I got a call from a lady who said her name is Smita, initially said she was staying with family in Mumbai and when asked again later, said she was in Lucknow and, when I asked is it ok if I speak with her husband, she said he is out on duty, this is around 10 pm last night, she spoke real softly, almost as if she was in fear of being heard by someone and, she asked for pictures of the product of ad posted to be sent to her by WhatsApp again, I said ok but felt something amiss.

Within a minute of her call, I get another call from a guy who said his name was Johrawar Singh and said he stays in Mumbai and, while he spoke I could hear another lady in the background trying to scam someone else with maybe a written script (earlier scammer Smita), so it’s clear this is a gang of scammers, so this guy tells me he can pay half amount advance via his senior but only via Google Pay or PhonePe or Paytm, I tell him I don’t have any of these, he says it’s your choice as you will lose out on half amount advance, I said I’m fine with losing out and I suggested , why don’t you meet me in person and I’ll show you the product mentioned in the ad and then you decide, he said fine and hung up. Went to TrueCaller and reported both this number and the earlier call as spam and blocked, reported both numbers to Quikr customer service via email.

Today, around 10 am spoke with a person who called himself Hardayal Singh and, claimed to be from Pimple Saudagar in Pune and said he is a fauji and was looking for a place urgently and will be in Mumbai by 15th Jan, he sounded like the scammer from last night, I told him come down and meet me in person and, maybe he realised I wasn’t going to budge so he said ok and hung up, reported him on TrueCaller as spam.

I called up Quikr support +91 80-37990995 and spoke with Avinash, he said this is a recent scam that has started and they were getting lots of similar complaints from other users, and these scammers claimed to be Army or police men to add some authenticity and, I told him about an incident I had read wherein people claiming to be in the Army posted ads for selling their cars on Quikr and Olx and, asked for an initial deposit to see the car and, people ended up falling for these lies too, and Avinash agreed Quikr had received complaints about the car scam and he said latest is Quikr real estate scam, also I gave Avinash the 3 phone numbers and told him to do research and, have the Quikr IDs associated with these numbers checked so, these scammers can’t scam others. Also sent a follow up email to them for the record.

Have shared here so that you’ll can be safe, pl do not entertain such calls.
Maybe Strike 1 - you get a call almost immediately after your ad is posted, checked this with Avinash and he didn’t have an answer as to how did I receive a call within minutes of posting ad, this is something maybe our forum members can help answer.
Strike 2 - it’s almost impossible that someone without seeing your product on online marketplace will pay you advance amount.
Strike 3 - they only provide payment via PhonePe or Paytm or Google Pay.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by GTsunny

Quikr scam alert!

Strike 1 - you get a call almost immediately after your ad is posted, checked this with Avinash and he didn’t have an answer as to how did I receive a call within minutes of posting ad, this is something maybe our forum members can help answer.
Strike 2 - it’s almost impossible that someone without seeing your product on online marketplace will pay you advance amount.
Strike 3 - they only provide payment via PhonePe or Paytm or Google Pay.

Have never used Quikr but did you make your number visible? I use OLX and never share my contact number or email, and ensure that I stick to OLX Chat with all interested parties. Only once I am sure of the authenticity do I share my mobile/WA number.

Scammers can usually figure out the scope to defraud someone, and they don't pursue tenacious sellers :-)

[atnyia]

I had off-late relied on 3rd party payment services a lot. As someone highlighted, the conversation-style payment design is prone to scamming with requesting for payment options.

I tested this on my wife and requested her payment while telling her that I am sending her money. It was quite startling that she was almost making the payment and the point really hit home with me.

This is what I did:
1) Removed 3rd party payment apps completely by delinking the accounts.
2) Use UPI via Banks apps. ICICI. There is no ambiguity there over payment requests as they show up as a separate tile.
3) For the cashback offers, I almost always use Payzapp of HDFC and have linked my credit card over there. One of the lesser-known but better cashback programs. Also, if you have a good credit card and are into Smartbuy, this app is totally worth it. SBI has a similar implementation for the YONO app.

Removed UPI apps from my wife's phone. Now she clicks a photo of QR code and sends it to me and I make the payment from my iMobile app.

[s4ch]

Originally Posted by Gansan

I use PayTM for FasTag and purchases from a couple of trusted shops through phone. I send my requirement by whatsapp, they invoice through PayTM and receive payment by taking an OTP which I read out over phone. Then they deliver the items to me. Very useful for the past nine months.

Question: Why do you need to read out the OTP to the seller? Doesn't this defeat the whole purpose and concept of an OTP? If you are making a payment then doesn't the person paying have to authorise it on their phone rather than the one receiving the money? Just trying to understand the workflow here.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by s4ch

Just trying to understand the workflow here.

There is no PayTM POS machine in either of those shops, nor do we have PayTM cards. We have to inform about PayTm payment before billing, they enter it in their billing software, which then hooks up with PayTm. As soon as invoice is generated, they will tell us to scan the barcode of the shop if we are present there, and the transaction will go through. If we are at home and ordering by phone, the shop fellow asks us to read the OTP appearing in our app screen, they enter in their computer and the transaction is approved. Then they send home delivery. In any case the OTP will be valid only for ten seconds.

[GTsunny]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Number visible? OLX Chat with interested parties.

Yes, I’ve used OLX chat both as a buyer and as a seller and, the experience has been decent and, as you mentioned it helps weed out the people who aren’t interested both for buyers and the sellers, also maybe I didn’t mention earlier it’s my mistake that, this ad was posted across a number of apps and not just Quikr and Olx so, I’m not sure if all the apps have a chat option and, even if the apps have a chat option I’m not sure how easy it is to use the chat option and, even if there is a chat option and even if it’s smooth I don’t usually opt for it as, usually when someone is interested in the ad, their contact details show up to me through sms and / or email and / or WhatsApp but, in this case as I posted the ad, I got a call almost immediately which makes me wonder, how were they able to respond so quickly, so either they are pressing the refresh button often or, they are paid users on Quikr and they get a notification whenever someone posts a new ad or, is it possible that someone from Quikr is involved too?

I’ve never received calls like these in the past so yes, maybe it is time to move entirely to chats and then try to find out if person is genuine but, I wanted to know from members here, is it easy to decipher whether it’s a scammer or a genuine buyer / seller on chat as in, a scammer could sound genuine on chat too so, I don’t feel chats are foolproof, it’s unfortunate that there are these scammers who think of scamming as a way to make easy money and don’t realise that, this could be a person’s life savings

And yes, got a scam call yesterday afternoon time, sounded like the same guy, called himself Fauji Jora Singh, ready to give me advance as he feels I’m a genuine seller, I asked him how did you deduce I’m genuine when you don’t even know me, I could very well take the money you send me and run away, he said there is something called ‘trust’ and he ‘trusts’ me and I’m thinking that’s rich , after I told him to meet me in person he hung up, reported him via TRAI app and TrueCaller and requested Quikr via email to investigate.

[vsrivatsa]

Got a high quote for an item I had put on OLX. The person then took my number. He called and negotiated for me to reduce by ₹500. He then said he will send someone to pick up the item in 1 hour time.

Later he called again and said he would like to make an advance payment. He sent the QR Code on WhatsApp and said he is transferring money to me. I realized the game has started. Told him I am not interested and that he can come in person. He called around 10 times again and again and said "Maa Kasam" Blah blah to convince me. Finally told him, I know what you are up to, your game is up - please stop calling me. Marked him as a Scammer on Truecaller.

I see that Olx has put up this educational video on Youtube as well now:

Protect yourself from QR Code Frauds | Safety is the Key

[CliffHanger]

Was scrutinising my Paytm account now after checking this thread (never did it before) - - tried deleting my bank account, and surprise, surprise, there is an automatic payment set for Jiosaavn till 2037(I purchased it just once quite some time back), preventing me to delete the bank account. Tried cancelling the automatic payment, it is throwing a vague error. Tried contacting paytm customer support. Even after several steps and several minutes, I couldn't connect to any person.

Guys, be really careful with all these apps, they are just after our money and do anything to sneakily siphon it off. No wonder their customer care is zero and just namesake.

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by CliffHanger

Was scrutinising my Paytm account now after checking this thread (never did it before) - - tried deleting my bank account, and surprise, surprise, there is an automatic payment set for Jiosaavn till 2037(I purchased it just once quite some time back), preventing me to delete the bank account. Tried cancelling the automatic payment, it is throwing a vague error. Tried contacting paytm customer support. Even after several steps and several minutes, I couldn't connect to any person.

Guys, be really careful with all these apps, they are just after our money and do anything to sneakily siphon it off. No wonder their customer care is zero and just namesake.

Paytm customer support is atrocious to say the least.
Do keep the communication on e-mail so that you can escalate to the ombudsman in case your request is not processed.
Mention the number of times you have tried contacting over their IVR as well in your mail.

email Ids: customercare@paytm.com; care@paytm.com (one of them worked some time back when I had to followup for the activation of a fasttag)

[aadya]

Originally Posted by Gansan

There is no PayTM POS machine in either of those shops, nor do we have PayTM cards.

This is common and legal with shops with high people turnover where they cannot monitor the payment received through QR code scanning. It is the reverse of the routine scan payment. Here they generate an invoice and recieve the one time code or scan the bar/qr code in our mobile to confirm the payment. This message will have the shop name and the amount to be deducted clearly mentioned. This is different from the otp we receive from the bank to complete payment. This is entirely safe as you are aware that you are making the payment. The QR code/otp scam pertains to the duping of persons who reveal it to receive money, which need not be done(After all you do not require to submit your signature to deposit money in your bank account). We should understand the basic difference.

Originally Posted by CliffHanger

Guys, be really careful with all these apps, they are just after our money and do anything to sneakily siphon it off. No wonder their customer care is zero and just namesake.

Call jiosavn and try cancelling it. Actually removing the account does not even require two clicks.

I have used multiple wallet apps - Freecharge, Paytm, Phonepe, Samsung pay etc. The major inbuilt safety is that you cannot make transactions beyond 25k and with some banks 50k in a day. I feel safe to use them rather than my bank app directly multiple times a day in crowded environs.

[BoneCollector]

PayTm is the worst of all. I have FasTag of it and use PayTm only for FasTag. I've stopped using it for anything else because once while adding money to its wallet from my savings account, it added my account and generated a UPI address. I tried to contact them but they didn't revert with the resolution. Luckily, a friend of mine guided me to remove the account from PayTm. Since then, I use it solely for FasTag and for that too, I recharge just before I'm leaving for outstation trip.

Once while adding money to my wife's PayTm, I ended up adding money to PayTm Bank account which was never asked to be opened. Now she doesn't use PayTm.

Google Pay appears to be safe. I also use Google Pay Business.

[CliffHanger]

Somehow I got my bank account removed from this sneaky Paytm(removed from gpay as well, having both had no benefit either). These guys are just waiting to catch us off gaurd. Just one mistake, and it will be misery for a long time.

Like suggested by Gkveda, topped up the wallet with 3-5k. No more going to use the bank account anywhere.

If not for this thread, I would have lost money every year, probably till 2037. I generally do not track my expenses, as I am quite careful on how I make my purchases and generally very slow to adopt to latest technologies.

With FOMO, I got caught in this tech revolution bandwagon. No more!

[Bhupesh_2628]

Hi Team-BHPians,

Are you able to delete Saved Cards from the PayTM mobile app in iPhone (iOS)?

I'm not able to do because nothing happens (no options appear) when I swipe left/right on that card.