If there’s one thing certain when it comes to new platforms, its the fact that there will always be individuals with malicious intent who will prey on people’s ignorance and lack of knowledge about how the technology functions.
This is exactly the case for the Indian digital payments’ giant – PayTM. There have popped many scammers who, by leveraging the company’s KYC procedure, are duping innocent and unsuspecting people out of their hard-earned money.
Earlier this year, a woman reported to losing a whopping Rs 1.40 lakh from her bank account after she fell for one such scam.
PayTM after taking note of this growing trend now addresses the same in many of their adverts but the scams, unfortunately, haven’t yet stopped. The notorious scammers simply modify the approach and keep preying on the platform’s users.
In one of the latest modifications, scammers send a message to people which claims that their eKYC document has expired and needs to be reactivated as PayTM will otherwise deactivate their account within 24 hours.
This particular message comes from telemarketing sender IDs such as BIKMRT or BRPAY so that they appear quite legit.Â
After seeing this message, if a PayTM user ends up panicking and then dials the given number to verify their KYC status then its half the battle won for the scammers.
On the other side of the call, a scammer who assumes the identity of a ‘customer service officer’ or ‘PayTM KYC executive’ receives the call and proceeds to execute the rest of the scam.
Enter pressure tactics. From here onwards, the malicious actor starts scaring the user by claiming that their bank account, card or PayTM account will be blocked if they don’t download AnyDesk or TeamViewer, both of which are remote access tools.
The user, at this point, has very much likely given into the false claims of the scammer and has downloaded the remote desktop app. The scammer then asks the caller to give them the 9-digit or 10-digit code from the tool and then records the credentials of the user.
And that’s it.
The scammer can now use these credentials to steal the gullible PayTM user’s money from their wallet, bank or card and there’s rarely anything that can be done to stop this from happening before the damage has been done.
Paytm KYC Scam: Stay Attentive And Protected
Never ever download any third-party apps without fully knowing how they are being used on your device. One should always keep this in mind. that genuine customer care executives seldom ask their callers to download any such apps or ask for codes or password.
Besides this, if you are a Paytm user, you must familiarise yourself with their real and authentic KYC procedure. There exist many authorised PayTM KYC points or as well as a service wherein a Paytm representative comes at your doorstep to help you complete the procedure.
Any and every communication that gets sent by PayTM via an SMS regarding KYC tends to have the link to fix appointments with their KYC agents or find the nearby KYC points only. Thus, if you observe anything that is out of the ordinary then you probably shouldn’t revert back.
This KYC epidemic is not only limited to PayTM but extends to Google Pay and PhonePe as well and therefore the only way to truly stay safe is to make sure you educate yourself about the app that you are currently using.
