4 held for fraud via e-wallet, city store

LUCKNOW: Two representatives of an e-wallet company were arrested along with two of their aides for making fraudulent online transactions through a partner departmental store’s account.
According to UP Special Task Force (UPSTF), the men made Rs 28 lakh illegally by using the ‘cash back’ scheme of the e-wallet company. Knowing all internal process, they had managed to transfer the amount to their bank accounts.

Those arrested were Vikki Asthana, Mohammed Firoz, Vinod Kumar and Akhilesh Kumar. The police are examining their mobile phones for further investigation.

The incident came to light when the owner of the Mahanagar-based store detected losses while analysing sales data. He approached the STF suspecting fraud.

STF SP (cyber wing) Suniti said the fraudsters had created multiple e-wallet accounts using different mobile numbers. In these accounts, they showed fraudulent transactions by customers at the store. The miscreants showed that these customers had made payment through e-wallets and got 10% cash back—6% from the e-wallet firm and 4% from the local store for every transaction. In reality, no sales had been made.

They also showed exaggerated prices of the sold products and as a result, got extra cash back.

Not only this, the miscreants also showed unsold products of the local store as sold products and got the cash back benefits.

“Asthana and Firoz had the passwords of the store’s accounts. They easily showed unsold products as sold and cleared the transaction verification process without actually making them,” explained Suniti.

The store owner had detected the fraud in records of May and June but STF probe revealed that the fraud was on since March.

STF is writing to the ewallet firm to review their processes as similar frauds are likely to be committed in other stores providing cash back.