Mysuru: ‘Cash for UPI payment,’ involving fraudsters targeting individuals or merchants by exploiting digital payment with the victim giving cash and getting scammed, is active in city. 

Here fraudsters approach unsuspecting individuals and tell them that they need cash & they would transfer money through UPI payment apps. Once the cash is given to the fraudsters, they show a fake SMS or a manipulated transaction screenshot, thus cheating the people. 

In separate cases, fraudsters have cheated individuals to the tune of Rs. 30,000 in similar manner and cases have been registered at NR Police Station in city. 

In the first case, an engineer from N.R. Mohalla, who visited HDFC Bank cash deposit kiosk on Shivaji Road at about 10.20 pm on June 8, was approached by a stranger, who asked the engineer if he had come to deposit cash. When the engineer replied that he had come to deposit Rs. 10,000 to his brother’s account, the stranger told him to give him the cash and he would make a UPI payment to him. Believing the stranger, the engineer gave him the cash and the stranger, who claimed that he had transferred the money through PhonePe app, showed him the transaction history and went away. 

As his bank account did not show the money being credited till June 13, the engineer lodged a complaint with NR Police. 

In the second case, a businessman went to SBI cash deposit kiosk at S.S. Nagar in Bannimantap at about 9.30 pm on June 12 to deposit Rs. 20,000 to his bank account. 

When he was about to enter the kiosk, two youth, who came on a bike, asked him if he had come to deposit cash. When the businessman replied positively, the youths told him that they needed cash and they would make UPI payment to his account. 

When the businessman gave them the cash, one of the youths, who pretended to transfer the money, showed the businessman a fake UPI transaction history and sped away on the bike. 

When the businessman’s bank account did not show any money being deposited to his account, he realised that he has been cheated and lodged a complaint at NR Police Station.