Bhubaneswar: With the advent of mobile wallets, the transactions of online purchases and banking transactions have become convenient and instant. However, the cyber criminals in the state are also buoyed with their increasing popularity.
In the past few months, they have cheated many gullible users of mobile wallets, mainly because the users are not well aware of the nuances of using online money platforms. According to experts, the UPI (Unified Payment Interface)-based mobile wallets users have become soft targets for cyber crooks. With the use of UPI, such wallets are directly linked to users’ bank accounts.
“In the past few months, the cyber crimes related to mobile wallet frauds have come to our notice and seem to be increasing. Many, due to ignorance, have lost their valuable money. Different ways are adopted by the criminals to withdraw money from bank accounts by fooling the users,’ said N Mahanta, Inspector-in-Charge, Cyber Cell, Odisha Police.
He added that there are more than 10 such cases registered with the police. Most of the victims, he said, belonged to urban areas and are those who use such mobile wallets often for online transactions and money transfer.
Many shopkeepers and online local businessmen customers are lured in with large orders but instead of receiving payments, they end up losing money.
One of the ways to dupe money from gullible mobile wallet users is when a buyer is about to pay the seller through mobile wallet, the seller gets a ‘request money’ option asking for their card details or UPI pin. If the unsuspecting seller provides the details, he would stand to lose the money from his account.
“Recently I got orders for five products from my online local sales. The customer said he will pay the money in advance through a mobile wallet. However, instead of receiving the payment I received a request for paying him instead. Such things never happen otherwise,” said Goldy Singh, a textile trader from the city.
She said that when the customer was questioned, he tried to convince her that such things are the latest trend in the mobile wallets and are quite normal. However, the alert trader did some research on the matter on the Internet and found that this has now been a new trend to siphon off money from the mobile wallet users.
Her suspicion was soon bolstered when she got a message stating that the amount which was requested from her (if she approved it) could be deducted from her account. Her alertness saved her from the fraud but many are not that lucky.
The Cyber Crime Cell of the Odisha Police claimed that such frauds are now becoming popular among the cyber criminals where instead of payments the mobile wallet users are sent ‘payment requests’ to confuse the customers. As soon as the UPI pin code is given for such payments the users can lose their money from the account directly.
Cyber experts ask the wallet users to be aware of the new trend and never fall for such payment requests. “This is a new trend. Criminals eye the ignorance of the users especially the women traders and less literate users. Mobile wallets automatically credit the funds when received into their wallets. It never asks to give your UPI pin to get the money,” said Robin Sharma, a cyber expert.