UPI Scams

Arjun

Skilled
Few days back someone called me from phonepe support and asked if i use phonepe on this number. I realized it wasnt a genuine call and disconnected immediately.

Today i got a call from someone pretending to be my relative, i could not recognize him and realized something was fishy. I checked his number on truecaller , it was saved as "phonepe fraud" on truecaller.

How can i keep myself safe from any scams incase something happens without my knowledge, i use phonepe very frequently.
 
Few days back someone called me from phonepe support and asked if i use phonepe on this number. I realized it wasnt a genuine call and disconnected immediately.

Today i got a call from someone pretending to be my relative, i could not recognize him and realized something was fishy. I checked his number on truecaller , it was saved as "phonepe fraud" on truecaller.

How can i keep myself safe from any scams incase something happens without my knowledge, i use phonepe very frequently.
Report both these nos. to local police to tag to cyber cell on twitter and expose the nos too.
 
One thing I can say based on super limited knowledge, if you are dealing with someone and they offer to pay via Google Pay etc, double, triple check the message that comes on the app as (fraud) people tend to send "Money Request" of the same amount and you may just click proceed or so and instead of money getting credited, that amount will be debited from your account.
 
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There is a huge industry just to scam people using UPI. The only option is to never make "collect" payments using links sent to your phone but to only initiate transactions on your own.

Unfortunately, this is well known for several years now but no action has been taken on this front.
 
One thing I cannot based on super limited knowledge, if you are dealing with someone and they offer to pay via Google Pay etc, double, triple check the message that comes on the app as (fraud) people tend to send "Money Request" of the same amount and you may just click proceed or so and instead of money getting credited, that amount will be debited from your account.
I recall this exact same incident while trying to sell on Olx. The buyer sent a Money Request link on Gpay twice from two different numbers. I blocked and reported both. Then stopped using Gpay as the interface is such you can easily click on Money Request without realizing it.
 
(1) I use Google Pay
(2) Used one phone number which connected all my bank A/C, Debit Cards and UPI Id’s
(3) As this is my primary number message all of my friends, relatives that I am going to surrender this number.
(4) Change every where Service Centre, Gas, Electricity, Aadhar, online shopping, play store, iOS, two factor authentication, Whats App…..you name it I did it, and update with new primary number.
(5) Now the said phone only conected with my bank a/c, debit card, upi ids only….All of these done by Aug 2017.

Same goes for my other family member - who have bank A/C, Debit Card and UPI Id’s.

Just last week applied for two debit card at SBI for two different accounts by filling up forms , the very next day two phone call came on those two respective sim cards which connected those bank a/c - didn’t bother to pick up as I know all are spams. Same goes for PNB, Union, Indian, ICICI - any update if I done by visiting the bank will get spam calls within 24 hours.
 
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There is a reason why I've stayed away from UPI till now. There's nothing wrong in using it, but I just prefer NEFT and IMPS till date and that too through the website and not some app. Thankfully, I have been able to survive till now without having to use UPI, but I know a lot of people prefer to use it including my brother, but one has to stay aware about these new scams that keep popping up.
 
I recall this exact same incident while trying to sell on Olx. The buyer sent a Money Request link on Gpay twice from two different numbers. I blocked and reported both. Then stopped using Gpay as the interface is such you can easily click on Money Request without realizing it.
You would still need to enter your upi pin though, right?
There is a reason why I've stayed away from UPI till now. There's nothing wrong in using it, but I just prefer NEFT and IMPS till date and that too through the website and not some app. Thankfully, I have been able to survive till now without having to use UPI, but I know a lot of people prefer to use it including my brother, but one has to stay aware about these new scams that keep popping up.
I think UPI is pretty safe for someone with the knowledge of NEFT and IMPS, I think the problem is that since UPI easily accessible a lot more people are using it and that include people with very little knowledge of banking and how things work and they become an easy target of these scammers. My uncle got scammed recently too, he just voluntary gave all the information and OTPs because he thought it was the bank that was calling him, if he had internet banking he would have given them that information too. But I can see why you would think that NEFT is more secure especially since you can't transfer money instantly and have to add beneficiary first.
Anyway I'm really glad UPI exists but I do agree a lot more needs to be done in regards to security because of the crop of new innocent/trusting users who aren't familiar with how online banking works.
 
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You would still need to enter your upi pin though, right?
that's right - block the contact on whose requests you're asked for UPI PIN - as of now, due to NPCI compliance and RBI norms - we need to enter UPI PIN in order to transfer money from our account - IIRC no UPI app bypass this and ensure this last step due diligence on your side to avoid of being scams.
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I think UPI is pretty safe for someone with the knowledge of NEFT and IMPS, I think the problem is that since UPI easily accessible a lot of people more people are using it and that include people with very little knowledge of banking and how things work and they become an easy target of these scammers. My uncle got scammed recently too, he just voluntary gave all the information and OTPs because he thought it was the bank that was calling him, if he had internet banking he would have given them that information too. But I can see why you would think that NEFT is more secure especially since you can't transfer money instantly and have to add beneficiary first.
Anyway I'm really glad UPI exists but I do agree a lot more needs to be done in regards to security because of the crop of innocent/trusting users who aren't familiar with how online banking works.
100% agreed - with UPI its easy to pull out the contact information without any consent and once you harvest this information - you can build the chain and reach out to any person who has any contact into that chain.

Also, these days the data harvesting companies offer accurate data which got sourced from multiple sources (imagine your visits to some property/car/expo or courier/paperwala/amazon/flipkart - also include banks/paisabazar and other apps). This was the close to accurate data gets shared and this data at one point becomes available for sale for very cheap prices - ppl can buy it and use it for their own perspective. If you don't believe me - just enquire for any add-on or value add service (like loan or DC/CC) for the bank and you will receive multiple calls from TPA's or bank authorized loan/CC/DD card officers. How this info gets populated - you will get all the answers yourself.
 
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What were they trying by pretending to be my relative? i curious to know how they would have tried to scam....
Social engineering! They wanted to make you feel that it's family matter and then they would make u feel some kind of urgency so that you make a mistake and neglect obvious signs.
That is how people just complete the transaction because they don't read what's coming up on the phone.
 
There is a reason why I've stayed away from UPI till now. There's nothing wrong in using it, but I just prefer NEFT and IMPS till date and that too through the website and not some app. Thankfully, I have been able to survive till now without having to use UPI, but I know a lot of people prefer to use it including my brother, but one has to stay aware about these new scams that keep popping up.
I did tried paytm, phonepe, gpay but I never trusted these.
Once I had a money request via UPI in PAYTM from olx since then disabled all the above apps.

I just use KOTAK bank app it has everything you need NEFT, IMPS, UPI, UPI QR scan, option to enable or disable certain features ( like ATM, online merchant, international usage etc) of a debit or credit card or completely enable or disable them.
In KOTAK app if someone requests money via UPI you first need to click approve then a popup appears saying that a certain amount will be debited from your account if you proceed further.
 
Excellent point to be added. The posts are deliberately made lucrative so that gullible people rush towards to grab it first.
But seriously, how dumb do you have to be to believe stuff like this:

Screenshot_2021-09-27-23-44-10-48_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg
 
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