A Chicken Biryani Can Cost You Rs 50,000

On Sunday, a resident of Rahmat Nagar in Jubilee Hills ordered ‘special chicken biryani’ on food delivery app Zomato. But he found out that his order got misplaced and he got ‘sambar rice’ instead. Infuriated with the service, the techie searched for the customer care contact online to share his grievance. Unfortunately, a casual Google search threw up a number for Zomato customer care, when in reality, Zomato does not have a customer care number.

The fraud “customer care” service was quite regretful of his bad experience and promised him a refund. After finding out that the customer had a Paytm account, the fraud customer care executive shared a link of a QR (quick response) code to be scanned for the refund. As guided, the victim scanned the QR code. To his shock, the customer realized that instead of the refund amount being credited, Rs 50,000 got debited from his account.

Hyderabad cyber crimes Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) KVM Prasad said that a phishing page deceived the victim. Police have registered a case under section 420 of IPC and 66 D of the IT Act (punishment for cheating by impersonation using computer resource). The investigation is going on.

This new modus operandi of online fraud has been prevalent for a few months.

Police said that the QR code scam is on the rise in the city and cautioned citizens against scanning the QR code when instructed by the “customer care.”

Meanwhile, Zomato had said earlier, "We constantly remind our users via different channels of communication that we do not have a customer care number. Chat and email are our primary channels of care. While we take every effort to ensure customer safety and security, we also urge our esteemed customers to be vigilant and not share their personal or bank account details with anyone."