Ex-Paytm executive dupes over dozen on pretext of fake KYC verification

Know Your Customer (KYC) verification seems to have become the emerging tool to dupe people. In a recent case, a former Paytm employee duped a dozen of the company's users in a pretext of KYC verification and transferred their money to his account.

The Cyber Cell of Rachakonda Police in Hyderabad has arrested Beerappa Gadda, a computer engineer who used to work with the company as a field executive for transferring money through fake KYC verification.

According to the police, Gadda logged in to users Paytm and started transferring money to his wallet before logging out.

Gadda used to work at the Gachibowli Paytm office as a field executive and his role required him to visit customers and assist them in updating KYC. During the process, he appears to have deceitfully accessed the user's Paytm password which Gadda later used in transferring wallet balance.

The police have advised users to not respond to messages and voice calls that are made on behalf of banks, insurance companies, and e-wallets. However, Paytm has not reacted to the development.

Following the mandatory KYC diktat from the apex banking and digital payment body - the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), wallet operators including Paytm have been rushing to complete the KYC process.

Triggering an aggressive KYC campaign, Paytm has deployed thousands of in-house as well as the third-parties ground workforce to speed up the verification process.

Six months ago, it also announced to hire 10,000 people and open one lakh branches across the country to make KYC process smooth and hassle-free.

The Noida-based Decacorn has been sending its representatives to houses where users complete the KYC. Meanwhile, impersonating a Paytm executive, an unidentified crook showed up to a user doorstep on a pretext of ensuring fake KYC.

The user's proactiveness and agility helped him not to fall prey to the phishing scam.

Alienating itself from the incident, the SoftBank-backed company emphasised that the payment company always send the SMS to customers whenever the home visit is fixed for KYC verification. Also, KYC agent always carries the ID card.

Paytm also urged customers to beware of fraudsters. To assist users, it also set up a dedicated team working round-the-clock with the police to provide them financial data to help nab cyber criminals.

In February, Paytm's former employee was named in a charge sheet filed by the CBI for allegedly cheating the company of Rs 11 lakh using its system of generating employee IDs and default passwords.

The news was first reported by Business Today.