With tons of online payment options, the risks of online frauds have increased to a great extent. QR code is one of the most convenient methods to pay money online, but is it safe?
A woman lost Rs 50,000 while doing an online transaction through a QR code. bgr.in reported this incident.
She was trying to sell her furniture online through OLX. The fraudster was pretending to be a buyer and approached her to buy the furniture via the website. To further discuss the deal, they asked her to take the conversation on WhatsApp.
Later, the fraudster sent her a QR code on Whatsapp telling her that he will do the advance payment. An amount of Rs 10,000 and a ‘Receive Money Check’ was written on the OR Code. After she scanned it, it asked for her UPI pin, as soon as she entered that, Rs 50,000 was deducted from her account, the report said.
How to be careful?
Indian users saw a massive transaction of Rs 7.7 crore digital transactions via UPI (unified payments interface) in October for the first time in India according to the latest IANS report of the NPCO (National Payments Corporation of India)
With such big transactions, a lot of fraud cases have been coming forward where they make fake QR codes and request money, like ‘Enter your UPI Pin to receive money according to bgr.in reports.
UPI Pin is generally asked when you want to pay for something instead of receiving it. Make sure to thoroughly check the QR code and if you find something suspicious, you must report it to your bank immediately.
The IANS report also stated that in October, there were 4.2 billion digital transactions that are around Rs 6.54 lakh crore. People did heavy e-commerce shopping during the festive season.
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