QR code scams are also on the rise. As soon as you scan it, the money will be deducted from your bank account. QR code scams are not new. Many times people fall prey to this scam on OLX as well. To avoid this, you should take care of some things. Online scams are increasing very fast. This is why people are always asked to be cautious. There is also a QR code scam going on right now. Also, your money will reach the scammers account as soon as you scan the QR code. Many security research companies have already reported about this.
QR code scams are not new. Many times people fall prey to this scam on OLX as well. A recent report said that a woman has listed some products for sale on OLX. The scammer messaged him to buy. He was willing to buy the product only at the listed price. After this he sent the QR code to the woman on WhatsApp. The scammer claimed that he wanted to give money to the woman. Scan the code with PhonePe or GPay and enter the UPI PIN to receive the payment.
Be careful when scanning QR codes
As soon as this happened, the money was deducted from the woman’s account. It was reported in cybercrime. Apart from this, another scam has been done regarding the QR code. Where scammers replace QR codes installed in public places like petrol pumps or shops with their own QR codes.
In this case, upon payment, the money goes to the scammer’s account. It becomes known much later. For this reason, when you scan a QR code while paying someone at a store, be sure to confirm the verified name with the shopkeeper once. Be careful if you are redirected to an unknown website after scanning the QR code. Let us tell you that you don’t need to enter any UPI PIN to receive any payment. In such a situation, if someone asks you to scan the QR code instead of sending the payment, do not do so and report it to the cyber police station.The country’s top lender State Bank of India (SBI) has warned its customers about the QR scans. SBI has alerted people not to scan QR Codes shared by anyone unless the objective is to pay.
QR codes have become an increasingly popular modus operandi for them to cheat people. With more and more people moving to online transactions, fraud related to the same too has been on the rise. You don’t receive money when you scan a QR code. All you get is a message that your bank account is debited for an ‘X’ amount. Do not scan #QRCodes shared by anyone unless the objective is to pay. Stay alert,” SBI has tweeted.
SBI has shared a two and a half minute video explaining a situation on how scanning a QR code will actually result in debiting money from your bank account. Check out this video here.
How does QR code fraud take place?
The scam starts with someone putting an item on an online sale website. That’s when the fraudsters pose as buyers and share the QR code to pay an advance or token amount. They then create a QR code and share it with the intended victim through WhatsApp or email. They will ask the victim to scan the QR code sent by them so that they will receive the money directly into their bank accounts. Believing them, the victims scan QR codes sent by the fraudsters presuming that they will receive the money in their account but they end up losing money.
What are QR codes?
A QR code is a type of barcode that can be read easily by a digital device and which stores information as a series of pixels in a square-shaped grid. QR codes are frequently used to track information about supply chain and – because many smartphones have built-in QR readers – they are often used in marketing and advertising campaigns. More recently, they have played a key role in helping to trace coronavirus exposure and slow the spread of the virus.
ALSHO READ :Village Maps of India Download IN MOBILE
The first QR code system was invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave, a Toyota subsidiary. They needed a more accurate way to track vehicles and parts during the manufacturing process. To achieve this, they developed a type of barcode that could encode kanji, kana, and alphanumeric characters.
Standard barcodes can only be read in one direction – top to bottom. That means they can only store a small amount of information, usually in an alphanumeric format. But a QR code is read in two directions – top to bottom and right to left. This allows it to house significantly more data.
The data stored in a QR code can include website URLs, phone numbers, or up to 4,000 characters of text. QR codes can also be used to:
- Link directly to download an app on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
- Authenticate online accounts and verify login details.
- Access Wi-Fi by storing encryption details such as SSID, password, and encryption type.
- Send and receive payment information.
- And much more – a company in the UK called QR Memories even creates QR codes for use on gravestones, allowing people to scan the code to read more about that deceased person’s life (if they have an obituary or news story relating to them online).
The development team behind the QR code wanted to make the code easy to scan so that operatives did not waste time getting it at the right angle. They also wanted it to have a distinctive design to make it easy to identify. This led them to choose the iconic square shape that is still used today.
Denso Wave made their QR code publicly available and declared they would not exercise their patent rights. This meant anyone could make and use QR codes.
Initial uptake of the idea was slow; however, in 2002, the first mobile phones containing built-in QR readers were marketed in Japan. The use of smartphones led to an increase in the number of companies using QR codes.
In 2020, Denso Wave continued to improve on their original design. Their new QR codes include traceability, brand protection, and anti-forgery measures. There are many new uses for the QR code, from transferring payments to determining objects’ positions within augmented reality.
READ MORE OUR ARTICLE: Download PUC Certificate Online 2022
THANK YOU SO MUTCH FOR READING OUR ARTICLE.