Bengaluru man loses Rs 95,000 to scammer posing as Paytm executive: report

Suresh further that the scammer, under the guise of being a Paytm executive, took his phone on the pretext of activating the cashback offer and told him it would get activated in a few hours and left.

A Bengaluru man recently lost Rs 95,000 to a scammer posing as a Paytm executive, a Times of India report said.

The 49-year-old man named Suresh M, who owns a condiments shop in the Hosapalya area of the city, got a visitor to his shop who, under the pretense of working for the digital payment app, told him that he would alter the settings of the man's Paytm which would enable him to get a cashback of Rs 150 for every transaction of Rs 2,500.

"I told him I don't need it. Then he asked if I was getting cashback for Paytm transactions. I told him I wasn't getting it for almost a year now," he told Times of India.

The shop owner said that he sent Rs 1 to the scammer more than once to get a cashback activation message, but did not receive anything. "I paid Re 1 but didn't get any cashback offer message. On the miscreant's suggestion, I paid Re 1 two more times but didn't get any cashback activation message," he said.

Suresh further said that the scammer took his phone on the pretext of activating the cashback offer and told him it would get activated in a few hours and left.

However, when he got his phone back he found that there was no internet connection and took the device to a nearby shopkeeper, who informed him that the mobile data had been switched off.

After switching on the mobile data, Suresh got a message which said that Rs 95,000 had been deducted from his account.

"The miscreant took the phone from me on the pretext of activating the cashback offer and returned it. He said it would get activated in a couple of hours and left. After some time, I noticed there was no internet connection on my phone. I took the phone to a nearby mobile service centre."

"The shopkeeper told me that mobile data had been turned off. Soon after I turned on the mobile data, I received a message that Rs 95,000 had been debited from my account. It was only then I realised that the miscreant had made me pay Re 1 thrice to observe my PIN and had siphoned off money," he said.

Suresh filed a complaint at a local police station and and one of the officers said that the scammer, who also asked Suresh if he needed a loan from Paytm, was around 28 years old and did not speak Kannada fluently.

A case was registered under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code for cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property.