Delhi police official loses over 2 lakh in PhonePe cashback scam

Delhi Police PhonePe scam

• The Delhi Police official reportedly received a call from an unknown number saying that he had won a cashback offer through a transaction made on PhonePe. But in order to avail the cashback, the policeman had to download a different app, according to a report by PTI.
• The scam wasn’t one in PhonePe but the app was used as a means to get through the user. Such apps have various cashback offers so that could have been one reason why the claim seemed genuine.
• Upon downloading and installing the app, the scammers then had full access to the police official’s smartphone. They were even able to make transactions from his phone and ended up transferring a total of Rs 2,12,000 from the police official’s bank account and credit card. 

An FIR was filed which was followed by an investigation, and the police even managed to nab the fraudsters. The scammers turned out to be a group of four people which included a couple who transferred the money into a digital wallet. There were up to five bank accounts linked to this digital wallet, and from different locations including Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

After the arrests were made, the police were also able to recover cheque books, ATM cards and passbooks of the fraudsters. Fortunately, the police official got back the entire amount of money that had been scammed earlier. 

Online scams have also advanced over the years, and have updated to target people through apps and services that they mostly use. One example is WhatsApp where scammers have been reaching out to people with job offers and money profiting schemes. With the latest incident, the scammers used PhonePe’s cashback offers as a decoy. So it’s important to keep in mind that cashback offers are available in the app itself and don’t require third-party apps to claim them.