How I Was Getting Duped on Quikr by Collecting My Financial Details

How I Was Getting Duped on Quikr by Collecting My Financial Details

I was flabbergasted to note that Deepak Sharma had deleted the three messages of his screenshots that he had shared with me on WhatsApp.

By Rakesh Raman

As I wanted to sell some of my old furniture, I posted an advertisement on the online marketplace Quikr with the photographs of items I intended to sell. I started getting messages from the potential buyers almost instantly and after getting the mobile number from the Quikr messaging service, today (October 28) morning I called the mobile number 70999 66449 of a person who displayed his name as Deepak Sharma as a buyer on Quikr. There is a possibility that he was hiding his real identity.

Assuming that Deepak Sharma is this person’s real name, he asked me to send him on WhatsApp the photographs of my furniture items and expected price. I sent the photographs and the price to him on his WhatsApp number. I had quoted the price of my furniture items at Rs. 65,000. He instantly agreed to pay me Rs. 63,000 which is approximately the same price that I demanded.

I was amazed how a buyer can agree to pay the amount that I demanded without even seeing the physical furniture I want to sell. Nevertheless, I decided to sell my furniture. The so-called Deepak Sharma told me that he will pay about half the money in cash and the balance on my BHIM UPI digital payment account. But I asked him to preferably pay most of the money through my BHIM account. 

He agreed and told me that he will send his people at 3:00 p.m. to take the furniture from my home for which I shared through WhatsApp my residential address. A few minutes after the decided time, I received a call from Deepak Sharma who told me that he has sent the people to pick up my furniture and I should share my Paytm account with him. Paytm is a digital payment app in India. 

But I told him that I do not have Paytm and asked him to instead use my BHIM account for making the payment from his Paytm as cross-app transactions are possible. He had told me in the morning that he has Paytm from which he will transfer the money on my BHIM account. 

Suddenly, however, this Deepak Sharma completely changed the version of his earlier conversation and insisted that I should install Paytm on my mobile phone. I smelled fraud at his insistence and said I am not eager to install Paytm because I already have a similar BHIM UPI app. He tried to confuse me with the meaningless argument to have Paytm for the furniture deal and even voluntarily shared his credit / debit card screenshots with me. 

I could not understand his purpose of sharing his card screenshots on WhatsApp while he also asked me to send him the screenshots of my credit / debit card. I refused. He started shouting at me when I said that instead of doing the painful rigmarole that he expected me to do, I prefer to cancel the deal. He was very angry with me and asked about my profession. I told him I am a journalist and disconnected the phone conversation with this Deepak Sharma. 

After a few moments, I was flabbergasted to note that Deepak Sharma had deleted the three messages of his screenshots that he had shared with me on WhatsApp. I did not receive any call from Deepak Sharma after this interaction.

SECOND PART OF THE STORY

Now begins the second part of this story after intermission. I called up 1930 service of Cyber Dost (Cyber Friend), the cybercrime force of police set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. I explained my Quikr experience with Deepak Sharma and the Cyber Dost staffer told me that my complaint has been registered and the Dwarka police will contact me, because I live in Dwarka, New Delhi. 

I also received a message on my mobile phone on October 28 at 16:51 from Cyber Dost which informed me that my complaint has been registered with ID 10102117. But Dwarka police did not contact me even after hours of registering my complaint.

I thought I should also inform my bank HDFC Bank about this possible fraud and called up the 1800 1600 service of the bank at around 5:00 p.m. on October 28. The HDFC Bank employee told me a complicated procedure to avoid the possibility of a financial scam. 

But the procedure was so cumbersome which included the visit to the HDFC Bank branch that I could not follow it. I received a message from HDFC Bank simultaneously that I should contact my Relationship Manager. I tried to contact the Relationship Manager who was not available to take my call. 

After all this troublesome exercise to protect myself and my hard-earned money from the scamsters, I decided to search Google to know if others also have the nightmarish experience that I had with the Quikr buyer. I was shocked to know that Quikr and similar online marketplaces are notorious for allowing their platforms to be used by cyber criminals who dupe people with almost the same modus operandi that Quikr buyer Deepak Sharma used in my case. 

For example, a victim explains on Quora social network how he got scammed in India on Quikr, OLX, or Paytm. A social website reveals that both Quikr and a similar OLX platform are frequently used by fraudsters and explains their modus operandi to swindle money from the unsuspecting users. Likewise, a user of social network Reddit says “Beware of Scammers from Quikr and Olx” and describes his experience in detail with the screenshots of his interaction with the accused. 

It has been reported that Quikr has even suffered financial losses because of such frauds and other scams happening through its website. But the company has failed to protect its website to give a secure online experience to its users.

While Quikr or other such platforms may be operating as interfaces for online criminals, I wonder why the law-enforcement agencies such as Cyber Dost are not taking any action to apprehend the criminals and stop these crimes. In fact, such government agencies should work proactively to protect the victims of cyber crimes. But they are not even responding to the complaints filed by citizens as it happened in my case.

Meanwhile, in another ongoing cybercrime case involving rogue telemarketers, I had urged the Delhi Police Cyber Crime Cell and other authorities about two months ago to take action. But let alone taking the action, the police did not even acknowledge the receipt of my complaint. Since Delhi Police is one of the most corrupt and unprofessional police forces in India, the police officials behave recklessly with citizens.

Now, I urge the police, Quikr, and the banks to fully investigate the current case of Deepak Sharma transparently and take legal / punitive action against him if he is the culprit. I expect an immediate response. I will update this webpage as this case progresses while I am in the process of reporting this issue to the higher authorities.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.

Contact

Rakesh Raman
Editor, RMN News Service [ Website ]
Founder, RMN Foundation [ Website ]
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