Escaping Fraud after posting advert on OLX
The house started looking like warehouse after few recent purchases. Time to shed off extra luggage, I thought and gleefully posted advertisement on OLX around 0700 hrs on 6th Feb. Received 3 chat messages on OLX within 2 minutes asking for my contact number. Supplied them with the number that's not linked with any bank account. One person called from number +91 96706 21082 and started with normal questions - Is the appliance working? Any reduction in buying price etc. Then he asked me for my whatsapp number (whatsapp business account) and moved the call to whatsapp. After that it was all series of instructions for me from him.
"Please mark the ad as sold on OLX, share your address and location, I am sending my person to pickup the machine."
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I did the first 2 things he asked. Then he asked if I want payment in NEFT or UPI. Told him, I am fine with either. He said I am sharing my payment with you. As soon as you scan that qrcode, you will get money in your account. I thought this is new. Amazon had voucher code mechanism wherein keying in the code would give some paybalance thing. So I scanned the image in google pay. Google pay flashed - you are paying xxxx amount to Mr Dhrupraj Sharma. I cancelled transaction and told that guy that I am not doing any scanning business. He started insisting sir paisa aapke account mein aajayega, aap tension mat lau. Told him I am not doing any such thing. He said to prove to you, I will transfer 1 rupee from my account to you using same method. He sent me another qrcode. I scanned that qrcode with google pay, google pay flashed - you are paying 1 rupee amount to Mr Dhrupraj Sharma. Didn't key in anything and blocked that number on google caller app as well as whatsapp. Phew! I wonder what kind of surprises will await me post retirement when technology will become way too confusing for me to adapt to. Just like how these scamsters are frauding senior citizens and non-tech savvy folks as of today. Cyber cell can easily catch these people by posting ads on OLX and other market place. Honeypot thingy. But I guess they too are over-burdened with too many cases with too less resources to manage it all. A good government would focus on empowering regulators at various levels. But hey, ours go a step further. They just switch off the internet connectivity :P
Appliance was sold to a poor lady through OLX only after demonstrating all the proper functioning of it. It's not much but just 200 rs over whatever exchange value flipkart was offering to me.
OLX does scan through the number and messages, and deactivates the scamsters account but there's atleast 30 mins gap between the first message received vs when the account is marked inactive. By then any vulnerable mind would fall prey to nagging, pressure and such theft tactics.