Jnt CP cautions about Paytm fraud

Kolkata: Several people over the last few weeks were duped by fraudsters by using the e-wallet Paytm as a tool to get the details of customers.

On Sunday, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Murlidhar Sharma tweeted attaching another tweet by Paytm where it had been mentioned that customers must not reply to any calls or messages where the sender is claiming that the KYC of the concerned person's wallet is about to expire.

According to sources, in the last few weeks, around 10 people have been duped in this manner. Among them, was noted classical vocalist Shantanu Bhattacharyya who was duped of Rs 63,000. Bhattacharyya said on January 2 this year, he received an SMS where it was mentioned that his Paytm account had been suspended.

He was asked to call on a number provided in the SMS else his account would be blocked after 24 hours. After he called on the number given, the person posing as a Customer Care Executive told Bhattacharyya to complete the KYC process in order to keep the account active and was directed to download a remote access application 'Team Viewer'. After getting access to Bhattacharyya's smartphone through the application, the accused person then asked him to make two transactions of Rs 5 and Rs 10 using his debit and credit cards.

When Bhattacharyya made the transactions from the saved cards section, the fraudster asked him to put the cards details ignoring the saved cards section. After he followed the instructions, the accused person then made three transactions amounting to Rs 63,528. Later, Bhattacharyya lodged a complaint with the Kolkata Police's Cyber Crime police station. Police sources informed that the fraudsters are suspected to be operating from Jamtara in Jharkhand.

On Sunday Sharma tweeted urging people not to reply to such calls or messages where the customers are being asked to provide any bank account or card related details.

(Image from oneiondia.com)