[pandey.jai]

I couldn’t find a thread discussing the various scams that are pulled by scammers via apps such as Paytm, PhonePe etc. Mods, kindly move this to the appropriate thread and apologies in advance.

One of my friends was scammed off 25k last week. They claim that they received various OTPs on their phone for a transaction via Paytm. The OTP apparently was never shared or entered on any platform. Somehow, the amount was deducted from the bank account and transferred to MPL Gaming.

I’m assuming there are many such scams going around. Request TBHP members to share any such scams they may have come across and also the modus operandi, so that others are aware and take adequate precautions.

[gkveda]

I am probably repeating this 3rd or 4th time on the forum.

We should never ever link the bank account to any third party app, whether it is payTM or any other reputed app including fastag.

Its like giving blank cheque duly signed to a stranger.

Instead, put some limited amount in the wallet and use it whenever required.

I have seen many people losing money like the post mentioned by OP.

[aadya]

Directly paying from the wallets have become difficult nowadays as merchants move towards UPI for receiving the money instantly. So what I do is add a small amount of cash, not more that Rs.5000 in my Paytm payments bank account and use the upi to transfer money for day to day expenses. So the only account exposed would be the paytm.

[pandey.jai]

Originally Posted by gkveda

Its like giving blank cheque duly signed to a stranger.

Instead, put some limited amount in the wallet and use it whenever required.

Adding money to wallets is also becoming risky proposition. The problem is also that the scammers these days use innovative methods to get money out of the wallet and these payment companies insist on linking bank accounts (for whatever reason). For example: earlier I used to be able to scan the code and pay via phonepe linked to my credit card. Now everyone is using UPI and this doesn’t work so Phonepe keeps asking me to add my bank account.


I’m slightly old school - I have my bank account linked to Google Pay and this account doesn’t have more than 20k at any point in time. I have phonepe linked to my CC and I don’t use other apps. I don’t care for reward related games etc that keep coming up on google pay (something about traveling India came up recently on Google pay) - I don’t play them nor do I share then.

Despite all this, I’m beginning to feel uncomfortable as days go by. Maybe I’m getting older.

[TheRajput]

Originally Posted by aadya

Directly paying from the wallets have become difficult nowadays as merchants move towards UPI for receiving the money instantly. So what I do is add a small amount of cash, not more that Rs.5000 in my Paytm payments bank account and use the upi to transfer money for day to day expenses. So the only account exposed would be the paytm.

I use the same method and find it to be very safe as you expose a minimum amount of money that too whenever required.
Have also suggested family and friends to do the same.

[AZT]

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

One of my friends was scammed off 25k last week. They claim that they received various OTPs on their phone for a transaction via Paytm. The OTP apparently was never shared or entered on any platform. Somehow, the amount was deducted from the bank account and transferred to MPL Gaming.

Can you share more details. I'm guessing the thief had access to your friends email account and email OTP is how he siphoned off money. I can't figure out how else this could have happened.

[MadAxe]

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

One of my friends was scammed off 25k last week. They claim that they received various OTPs on their phone for a transaction via Paytm. The OTP apparently was never shared or entered on any platform. Somehow, the amount was deducted from the bank account and transferred to MPL Gaming.

Can you elaborate so that others can become aware of this modus operandi? As far as I know transactions via Paytm do not require an OTP.
I think the scammers got hold of either the registered email or the Paytm credentials of your friend.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by gkveda

I am probably repeating this 3rd or 4th time on the forum.

We should never ever link the bank account to any third party app

I haven't and never will. In fact, I don't even have a debit card on any of my bank accounts. Only credit cards (i.e. bank's money) for me online. They are better at recovering their money than an individual ever will be.

Originally Posted by aadya

So what I do is add a small amount of cash, not more that Rs.5000 in my Paytm

Ditto. I keep 3 - 4 grand in PayTM and about 2 grand in my FASTag.

[shipnil]

Originally Posted by GTO

Ditto. I keep 3 - 4 grand in PayTM and about 2 grand in my FASTag.

So how do you use UPI? AFAIK, we can't link wallets to UPI yet. Or the shops around your area are still using old paytm QRs which also work with wallet?

[Deep Blue]

Most mobile apps of banks must be having UPI facility in them. Why not use them instead of these wallets?. I have been using the UPI payment through the imobile app of ICICI bank where I have my account. Never opened a paytm/google pay/phonepe/amazonpay account. I don't want any of their rewards too.

[DigitalOne]

Lot of kite-flying going around, nothing specific on any loophole. UPI transactions don't need any OTP. It is pin based.

I have been using UPI since almost the day it began 4 years back with BHIM app and now Google Pay (for 2 years now). I have not noticed any flaw in the design.

Older people typically fall prey to social engineering attacks (telephone callers pretending to be from the bank) and might reveal the pin or debit card pin, so I advise my older relatives not to use UPI.

Otherwise I find it pretty safe.

[Sran]

Many of my friends have already been duped by phonepe and gpay. Phonepe seems to be the biggest cheat and paytm to be the least.

The most common seems to be: A person calls and says you have got a bonus of certain thousand amount, scan the QR code to claim it and boom! money vanishes. What I have felt is that those scamsters know how much money you have in your phonepe or gpay wallet and the winning amount is always near that what you have in the wallet and for that there has to be many phonepe higher and junior level employees engulfed in this scam. GoI and RBI spends hundreds of crores of ruppes to educate customers about frauds but everyday 1000s fall into the trap. One of my friend who was duped of 10,000rs has himself been a zone incharge of airtel payments bank, one is a sub inspector and another one is a scale 3 officer in a psu bank but the scamsters are too good even for them. Only way to lessen these scams is to stop the "request payment" section. Why is this even a function? Imagine someone sending their cheque to be signed by you in order for you to receive a payment. It is that much stupid a "function". Companies know that this feature is hugely exploitative yet they fail to delete it. Talking about corporate self responsibilty is laughable anywhere in the world.

I never rode the bandwagon of wallets until lockdown. I had to join paytm and I went as far as playing fantasy ipl games. I feel ashamed about it. I don't know what happened but I just took a deep dive into it, talk about killing time and being oversmart. I spent around rs1600 in total. Found out that dream11 is a big cheat and fraud. You can win 10 rs in mpl and paytm first games every now and then.

I am a cash carrying person. Maybe because I don't do impulsive shopping. We specifically go out to buy things and know our budget and how nuch to go over budget and carry that amount. Plus I don't want my banks to know what I am doing with my money. I have never cared about rewards or discounts while using cc. I often wonder do people really go to to restaurants where their cc's are offering discounts? Do people really use apps like cred?

[pandey.jai]

Originally Posted by MadAxe

Can you elaborate so that others can become aware of this modus operandi? As far as I know transactions via Paytm do not require an OTP.
I think the scammers got hold of either the registered email or the Paytm credentials of your friend.

Originally Posted by AZT

Can you share more details. I'm guessing the thief had access to your friends email account and email OTP is how he siphoned off money. I can't figure out how else this could have happened.

I do not have more details about how the scam was pulled off. What I heard is my friend had linked their bank account (HDFC if that matters) with Paytm and they got about 5-6 OTPs on their mobile phone. They say that none of these OTPs were shared with anyone (and I do not have a way to refute/doubt my friend's account and as such have to take it at face value) and yet somehow the money got deducted.

Besides the above information, I do not know anything else about this issue to be honest. I have no idea how this could have been pulled off and it borders on the "suspicious" category.

My friend has filed a complaint with the cyber crime cell. I will have to wait to hear from them. If I hear more about this case, I will update here.

On a related, yet different note: Does anyone here have any experiences with the cyber crime cell?

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

I couldn’t find a thread discussing the various scams that are pulled by scammers via apps such as Paytm, PhonePe etc. Mods, kindly move this to the appropriate thread and apologies in advance.

One of my friends was scammed off 25k last week. They claim that they received various OTPs on their phone for a transaction via Paytm. The OTP apparently was never shared or entered on any platform. Somehow, the amount was deducted from the bank account and transferred to MPL Gaming.

Is this a wallet based issue or a upi based issue? Both are very different. Your thread heading and initial post seems to talk of wallet but your follow up post kinda talks about UPI I'd related.

Originally Posted by gkveda

I am probably repeating this 3rd or 4th time on the forum.

We should never ever link the bank account to any third party app, whether it is payTM or any other reputed app including fastag.

Its like giving blank cheque duly signed to a stranger.

Sorry but with regards to UPI (E.g Gpay and Patym specifically), how is it a blank check?

I'm assuming you aren't talking about those naive enough to fall for the QR based and similar tricks.

[spgv]

Just open a paytm bank account and just load 5k in it via IMPS/NEFT etc.
Adding some fund to paytm wallet via paytm bank account is hassle free.
This arrangement will take care of wallet payments, UPI payment to other platforms like Google pay, amzon etc. Additionally paying through paytm bank account to any merchant requires pin and not via OTP.