Recently, the police department has received more and more complaints that fraudulent bank transactions are taking place through the use of UPI embedded in PhonePe. In the complaint, the victims mentioned that money was being fraudulently withdrawn from their bank accounts unexpectedly without their knowledge or consent via PhonePe.
The investigation revealed that all the fraudulent amounts in all the complaints were transferred to Amazon Pay. This month alone, about 7 complaints have been registered in Tamil Nadu through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
In a statement issued by Cybercrime in this regard, it has been mentioned that this reveals the serious nature of this fraudulent activity.
An investigation into unauthorized transactions through Phone Pay has revealed the use of a fraudulent app called PM Kisan Yojna, which is being shared through various channels, especially WhatsApp.
It can also restrict SMS usage and device activation among users. Fraudsters intercept SMS traffic and use it to modify UPI apps. Using the fraudulently collected data on UPI apps, unauthorized transactions are made fraudulently.
These apps fetch important personal data like name, Aadhaar number, Pan (PAN) and date of birth from the internet. This sophisticated fraud attack has taken a financial and emotional toll on many.
- Monitor your bank account activity regularly. Any unauthorized transactions should be reported to your bank immediately.
- Avoid clicking unknown links, replying to unwanted messages or mails.
- Avoid sharing key UPI data or OTP under any circumstances.
- Always use official apps and websites for fund transfers.
- Always download and use official apps only and avoid downloading apps from unknown or unverified sources.
- If you are a victim of such a scam, call the Cybercrime toll-free helpline number 1930 and report it. You should register your complaint on the website www.cybercrime.gov.in.
