BENGALURU: A man who attended an automated phone call, purportedly from Swiggy, ended up losing Rs 39,000 from his loan application LazyPay. The victim's mobile phone was flooded with almost 10,000 messages containing OTPs to keep him engaged and prevent him from taking measures to stop the fraud.
Channakeshava KS, sales executive at an automobiles firm, told police he received a call from 080 69673056 around 11.39am on December 18.
On attending the call, he found it to be an automated one. The voice message said: "We have received an order for Rs 5,345 from your Swiggy account, if it is you please press 2, otherwise press 1."
Channakeshava told TOI, "Since I hadn't ordered anything I pressed 1. The next voice message said, 'We have sent an OTP to your mobile number. Kindly enter the OTP to verify your account'. I typed a six-digit OTP on the call. After 30 seconds, the voice message said, 'Your account is verified and it is safe now, thank you'."
Around 12pm, Channakeshava received four OTPs from Swiggy. "I assumed somebody was trying to log into my account. I didn't worry much because unless I give my mobile number and OTP, none would be able to log in," said Channakeshava.
Around 2.30pm, Channakeshava started getting
OTP messages
in the name of BJP, Congress and IRCTC, among others. "The messages kept pouring in. By the time I would open one SMS, another would land," he added.
"From 3.55pm, I started getting calls. Till 4.24pm, I had more than 20 missed calls from different numbers, including landline and mobile. The calls kept getting disconnected without any communication even as SMSs continued to flow in," he recalled.
'A new trend in cybercrime'
Flummoxed, Channakeshava opened the food delivery app. He found there were five deductions from his LazyPay credit facility linked to Swiggy. "I realised the flood of calls and messages was to distract me. Around 4.24pm, I logged out my Swiggy account," he said, and immediately, the OTPs and calls stopped. "The fraudsters had lost access to my account and stopped the calls," Channakeshava said. But by then, he lost Rs 38,720.
A senior officer said this is a new trend in
cyber fraud
. A few complaints are posted on X this week, he added.
Channakeshava said he reached Chandra Layout police station around 7.38pm but there was a rush and he had to wait. "The inspector asked me for a written complaint to start investigation," he said.
"After I wrote the complaint, the inspector said it was too late and asked me to come the next morning for registration of FIR. Next morning, I went with all the required documents. The inspector asked me to log into my Swiggy account. When I did, I could see that all the information from my account was deleted and it was asking me to sign up again," Channakeshava said, adding that the FIR was registered.
"I went to the station again on Wednesday and was told that the inspector was on leave and will be back to work on Thursday, and he had to sign to initiate the process," he added.
Swiggy on Wednesday replied to Channakeshava's email stating it needs more time to investigate the matter.
LazyPay communicated to Channakeshava that the deductions would have been verified via a secure OTP sent to his number. "If this wasn't done by you, it would have been done by someone who had access to your phone. If this payment needs to be reversed, you will need to contact Swiggy," it said.
LazyPay has temporarily blocked Channakeshava's account to avoid misuse.
English (US) ·