Online book sale turns costly: Bengaluru student loses Rs 90,000 to QR code scam; fraudster posed as buyer, tricked her into scanning codes

BENGALURU: An 18-year-old girl, in an attempt to sell her books and make some pocket money, ended up losing Rs 90,000 to online fraudsters recently. Sonal (name changed), residing in Sidedahalli, north Bengaluru, said she lost money on June 15 after posting an advertisement on OLX platform two days earlier to sell her One Piece: East Blue volumes 4-9.She was contacted by potential buyer Ashok Agarwal (no. 7041855882) on June 15. She quoted the price for two books as Rs 1,500 and he readily agreed to buy them. He spoke to her in Hindi and asked her to share her location. He claimed he would make the payment and send his employee to collect the books from her house. "Since it was my first time, I asked him why he was agreeing to make the payment without seeing the books. He spoke to me convincingly and claimed he trusts me. I asked him to pay through a digital payment application (DPA)," Sonal told TOI."The fraudster told me he would make the payment only through a bank account. He sent QR code of Re 1 and asked me to scan it and receive money so that the account could be verified. Initially, the message displayed was ‘transaction failed', but the amount got credited to my account. I thought it was legitimate. He then sent me another code for Rs 1,500. When I scanned it, the money got deducted from my account," Sonal said."I realised I was being conned and told him so. He claimed it was not a scam and cited technical glitches," Sonal said.He sent her another QR code. But the transaction failed as she didn't have enough balance in the account. "He told me I had insufficient funds and asked me to give an alternative UPI ID. I scanned the code from my mother's DPA, and Rs 4,500 got deducted from her account. I hung up but he kept calling, promising to return the money. Later, he sent another QR code and when I scanned it, Rs 19,500 got deducted from my mother's account twice. He later siphoned off Rs 40,500," Sonal said.Before he could cheat her any further, Sonal's father intervened and pulled up the fraudster over the phone. In an hour, they went to the police station and cops froze the fraudster's account.