Selling used wares online? Beware of cons masquerading as buyers

Two techies who separately posted OLX ads to sell their beds ended up losing thousands of rupees to online fraudsters.

Fraudsters contacted them evincing interest in the item they have posted for sale and asked them to scan the QR code they sent. Instead of receiving the money for the item being sold, the two techies found money being debited from their bank accounts.

Using the QR code to pilfer money has become the most common form of online fraud and more people are falling victim to this method in the last two years, cybercrime police said.

In the first incident, Sapna Bulchandani, 29, who resides in Kasavanahalli, lost Rs 60,000 when the man who responded to her October 30 OLX ad to sell her bed asked her to scan the QR code he sent to pay for the bed.

The man, who introduced himself as Kanhaiya Kumar from HSR Layout, called her at 5 pm, saying he would pay first and pick up the bed later. He sent the QR code via WhatsApp and asked her to scan it to receive the money. Sapna told DH that the amount got transferred to a bank account in the name of Udaybhan Singh.

Another techie, Tejasvi Singh, 29, who also resides in Kasavanahalli, posted the ad to sell her bed on October 25 and received a call the same day. Tejasvi followed the man’s instructions to scan the QR code and found Rs 9,600 being debited from her account.

“He said it was a technical issue and promised to return the money,” she said. “On October 29, he sent QR codes again, and, after scanning them, I lost Rs 46,900. The portal should ensure fraudsters don’t access our advertisements as incidents like these have also happened in the past.”

Since software firms had extended the work-from-home option post-lockdown for four more months, Tejasvi planned to sell the bed and go home. An investigating officer from the Whitefield CEN police station said both cases were under investigation. “We’ve been educating people over the dangers of scanning QR codes sent by strangers, but many continue to fall prey to such frauds,” the officer said. “Targeting those advertising online has become a trend.”