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Woman loses Rs95K after calling fake Swiggy Go helpline

Last Updated 09 September 2019, 04:19 IST

Controversy hit Swiggy Go, the instant pick-up and drop service, on the first day of its pilot launch in the city on September 4.

A woman complained to the police that she lost Rs 95,000 after uploading her bank details and the UPI PIN on a link sent by a “customer care executive” of Swiggy Go. Actually, she had dialled the wrong number.

Aparna Thakkar Suri, 47, a resident of Indiranagar, had put her smartphone up for sale on OLX. A man named Mohammed Bilal contacted her, offering to buy the phone. Aparna used the Swiggy Go app to send her phone to Bilal. He was to pay her online after receiving the phone.

Around 8.45 pm, a Swiggy Go delivery boy picked up the phone from a service centre mentioned by Aparna. But around 11 pm, Bilal called up Aparna to inform that the delivery order was cancelled and he did not get the phone. She called up the delivery boy who said the order got cancelled and the phone was in his office.

A Swiggy spokesperson said Aparna not only gave an incomplete delivery address but also placed the order from her son’s number. She removed his SIM and started using her own number to place another delivery order. Since she was using a different number, the customer care executive told her she had not placed any order. Another Swiggy executive tried to call her son’s number but it was not reachable.

Meanwhile, Aparna googled the Swiggy Go customer care but ended up calling a dubious number. The person who received the call realised what she was up to and asked her to place another delivery order by paying Rs 3 through a link. When Aparna clicked on the link, she was instructed to send her bank details, including the UPI PIN, to five different numbers. Aparna did as told.

Minutes later, she received messages from her bank that Rs 95,000 had been debited from her account. She tried calling the same number but there was no response. She then filed a complaint with the Baiyappanahalli police. Police have opened a case under the IT Act.

The company’s spokesperson said Aparna had been “cheated by somebody else, not Swiggy”. He said they tried to lodge a police complaint but cops turned it down, saying they were not the aggrieved party.

The spokesperson said: “This an unfortunate case of fraudsters who are publicising themselves through fake customer care numbers of prominent brands on dubious websites created by them. In recent times, a lot of defrauded customers have been escalating such issues across platforms and law enforcement agencies.

“At Swiggy too, we make attempts to file complaints when such an instance comes to our notice. However, these are not always registered by the officials on grounds of us not being the injured party.

“We would like to stress that Swiggy never requests its users to share their personal bank details and advises them to always connect to customer care through the Swiggy app or via email.”

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(Published 08 September 2019, 19:24 IST)

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