Scammers in Madhya Pradesh’s Khajuraho are cheating people by tampering with QR codes used for digital payments. Several shops and businesses, including petrol pumps, fell victim to this scheme after fraudsters allegedly swapped or covered the original QR codes with fake ones overnight. These altered codes redirected payments to bank accounts controlled by the scammers.
The scam came to light when a customer noticed something unusual—a QR code displaying the name “Chhotu Tiwari” instead of the shop’s name. Suspicious, the shop owner reviewed CCTV footage, which revealed miscreants replacing the payment codes during the night.
A video showing the scam and its details, shared by Brut India, has now gone viral. Khajuraho police station in-charge Atul Dixit confirmed the incidents, stating that one person has been arrested and an investigation is underway to identify others involved. According to the police, nearly six establishments have been impacted by this fraudulent activity.
Watch the video:
Reacting to the video, one user wrote, “Always double check the name loudly with the receiver before making the payment.”
Another user wrote, “Every vendor has to check first thing in the morning by sending re1 to their own qr.”
A third individual said, “Imagined by everyone, executed by one.”
India introduced Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on April 11, 2016. By October 2023, more than 50 million merchants across the country had adopted UPI for their digital transactions.
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