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BENGALURU: If you thought ranting about poor customer service on social media could get you a quick response, think again: you could even fall prey to online fraudsters.

A city-based cybersecurity specialist lost Rs 50,000 when he took to Twitter to complain about a bank after multiple attempts to recharge his FASTag wallet failed. A complaint to this effect was lodged with Hennur police on Wednesday. This is the first online fraud being reported in the city with FASTag as the bait.

The victim, Nikhil (name changed on request) of Banaswadi, told TOI: “On January 11, I raised a complaint on Twitter about problems with recharging FASTag issued by Axis Bank. The bank staff responded and sought the registered number and contact details. In my response, I provided my contact details. On January 13, I got a call from a person who claimed to be from Axis Bank’s customer helpdesk.”

Nikhil took it to be a genuine response. “The caller sent me a link through SMS which said, ‘Axis Bank — FASTag form’ and asked me to provide a few details in order to activate my FASTag wallet. In the form, I provided details like my full name, registered mobile number and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) PIN. I thought the application itself served as a point of recharge. I typed the PIN and submitted it. Subsequently, I was told that the helpdesk had generated a one-time pass (OTP) which was sent to my phone. The caller told me to send the OTP to a different number and I did accordingly.”

The moment Nikhil shared the OPT, he got a notification stating Rs 5,000 had been debited from his account. “I realised someone had hacked my UPI and was transferring the money. I quickly logged into my account and tried to block it, but it was too late. They had already withdrawn Rs 50,000 from my HDFC account and Rs 750 from my ICICI Bank. The UPI was linked to both the accounts.”

Nikhil said he should have been more cautious and not shared the UPI PIN. “They withdrew money in less than eight minutes. I was able to save Rs 30,000 by transferring the amount to a different account before they could lay their hands on it,” he added.

Nikhil started probing on his own and collected details pertaining to the fraud before approaching police. “Miscreants were sending these forms sitting in West Bengal and siphoning off money,” Nikhil said and added: “I have learnt a lesson. I appeal to others not to fall prey to scamsters.”

