The police on Sunday registered an FIR in a case where a fake Unified Payments Interface (UPI) address was found registered under the name of “PM Care Fund”, said an officer.
An officer said they received an online complaint about a UPI address “Pmcare@sbi”. The ID was created to receive donations and the matter was then raised with State Bank of India following which they blocked it immediately, he said, adding that the correct UPI ID is “PMCARES@SBI”.
In response to the complaint raised on Twitter by a donor, SBI tweeted: “Thank you for notifying us about this Fraud UPI ID. We have immediately alerted our UPI team and they are on the job to block the same. We sincerely appreciate your alertness [sic].”
“We have received a complaint against the fraudster and an FIR has been registered into the matter. We request donors to not fall prey to online frauds. Please verify the UPI address before initiating any payment,” said the officer. On Saturday, the police had asked the public to be aware of clicking on any unverified weblinks while searching for information related to COVID-19 on the Internet.
“We have cautioned people against opening suspicious emails and clicking on unverified links related to COVID-19 being circulated on social media platforms,” said an officer. The fraudsters send emails related to the pandemic, claiming to be health authorities, with the aim of tricking victims into connecting to a specific webpage and to login with their real email address and password. Scammers then use their credentials to access information to steal money, the police added.
