IAF Officer Robbed Of Rs 75,000 While Selling Furniture Online; This Is How UPI Fraud Happened

With the world going digital, transactions and bulk payments are getting easier, with large amounts just a finger click away. This has also given rise to innumerable security loopholes and threats.

People are getting their money duped in plenty of cases, either due to lack of complete knowledge of the money transferring apps, or due to carelessness.

Nevertheless, despite checking out both the requirements and being extra careful about usage of digital medium to transfer funds, people get duped off because of the increasing volatility of such fraudsters.

In recent news, an IAF officer was duped off Rs 75,000 by a fraudster, posing as a ‘CISF’ officer.

IAF Officer Duped on UPI App

You get to hear plenty of UPI-related scams on an everyday basis. In another such UPI scam, an IAF officer was looted off Rs 75,000 as a recent event, on an online platform, while paying money through a UPI-platform.

The incident took place, when the officer was trying to sell his old furniture. The buyer posed as a CISF officer and requested to make the payment through UPI, saying that since he lived in a remote village, he wouldn’t be able to make cash payment.

However, instead of getting money in his account from the buyer through UPI, the IAF officer lost Rs 75,000.

How to Protect Yourself from Such UPI-Scams?

This is nothing new, as such kind of UPI scams have been rising. Another notable aspect here is that none of this fraud happens due to any loophole or a flaw in the UPI apps but due to lack of complete knowledge and working of  such applications.

So, it is important for you to be more careful now than ever, since these frauds are on loose. We will help you understand how these frauds work and how they target people, with brevity.

• The scam starts when the fraudster makes an excuse to pay money online through UPI, instead of paying you cash.
• Once he/she convinces you to send the money through UPI, they will send you a UPI payment link.
• If you check carefully, the link opens up to Request’ money from you, instead of paying you.
• This is where people lose their money. They simply click on the ‘send’ option, without  reading the SMS from the UPI apps carefully, losing their money.
• To secure merchant payments, Paytm and other UPI apps send you an OTP to approve the payment to a shopkeeper.
• Here, the fraudster could use a merchant account and get an OTP generated for a debit from your account and will ask for it.
• You must ensure to never share your OTP with anyone.
• OTPs are only generated when you withdraw money from your account. So, make sure that you wouldn’t get them while adding oney to your account, in the first place.
• Never share your UPI PIN with anyone
• Make sure you download UPI apps only from official Google and Apple app stores. Always check the developer’s name and read reviews.