Pune: A man purchased a latest smartphone worth Rs 1.35 lakh from a mobile store in Kondhwa on Friday and claimed to have paid using an UPI application. The storeowner, despite receiving the credit message, did not receive the money.Later on the same day, the Kondhwad-based storeowner (36) lodged a complaint with the Kondhwa police and a case of cheating was registered against the unknown man.Senior inspector Kumar Ghadge said, “The store owner received a message stating the receipt of the money transfer on his UPI application. However, the money was not transferred in reality”.“We suspect that the ‘customer’ used a fake UPI application which sends a money transfer messageafter the customer scans the QR Code. The fund, however, is not credited to the receivers, in this case the shopkeeper,” Ghadge said.“The shopkeeper checked his cellphone, but money was not credited. The payee asked him to wait for 10 mintues and told the shopkeeper to call him if the money is not credited. He then walked away with the purchased cellphone,” he said.“We also suspect that the suspect was using a misleading cellphone number which he may have activated through a VPN and might have cheated other shopkeepers,” he said, adding that we have now focused our investigation on tracing the new cellphone’s IMEI number. If the phone is activated with a SIM card, we can reach the suspect/s.“We could get the modus operandi of the suspect/s involved in the cheating only after arresting them. We would also find out how the fake UPI application could have worked and sent exact UPI transaction messages to the storekeepers after QR code is scanned,” he said.A cybercrime investigation expert, however, underlined some key elements in the case.Sandip Gadiya, cybercrime investigation expert, told TOI “The UPI, generally, has a transfer limit of Rs 1 lakh per day. Here, Rs 1.35 lakh has been transferred in one transaction which is not possible.”“Secondly, the suspect might have used a spoofed text message (with header and text) to mislead the storeowner. These days, crooks use fake UPI applications to scan QR code and use spoofed messages to deliver fake payment messages,” Gadiya said.“The shopkeepers must check their bank accounts online to verify the money transfer and see their respective UPI application instead of relying on text messages. Most importantly, they must take down payee’s cellphone numbers and ID cards if money is not credited,” he said.
