QR code

I was working on a document, when my phone rang. The call was from unknown number. I picked up the call.

"Hello ma'am" I heard a professional tone and polite voice of a man.

"Who is speaking?" I asked thinking that probably it was someone from work.

"I am Deepak," he said.

I was unable to understand the purpose of the call. I had no person called Deepak in my friend circle. Also, I did not know any person with that name at my workplace. I needed to understand why this person was calling, "Hi Deepak. What is the purpose of this call?" I spoke with my authoritative voice.

"Ma'am I am calling from ABC supermarket. Last week you and your dad visited our shop," he said.

I tried to remember. We had visited their shop. We were their regular customers. But what puzzled me was that I had never shared my contact number with them.

I still tried not to show any confusion while speaking, "yes, we did".

"Ma'am your dad made a payment. He used PhonePe app. Is that correct?" He asked me.

This enquiry was going nowhere and I was still confused what had been going on, "I believe so. Will you please come to the point quickly? I am busy," I spoke sternly so that I could get to the bottom of it.

"Ma'am we checked out systems and found out that you were charged higher for the edible oil. We want to return that amount to you," he replied.

Now I found it strange. This was a discount store. We have never experienced this. But I decided to explore further.

"Okay, are you calling me to inform this?" I wanted to cut short the conversation so that I could get back to my work.

"Yes ma'am. We tried to return to your dad's UPI, but it did not go through. If you have Google Pay we will transfer the amount to you. Can you share your QR code over this number?" He said.

"How much is the amount?" I asked.

"Rs 13 ma'am. Can you please share your QR code with me?" He sounded anxious now.

This looked suspicious to me. Someone wanted to transfer rs 13 and for that they were so antsy. Somehow this was not sitting right with me.

I decided to use plan B,"can you prepare a credit note instead? I am coming to the shop this evening".

"No ma'am, I cannot do that. Sir has told me to send you the money," he said.

"May I speak with sir? He knows me well, I would tell him my decision. He had issued credit notes earlier to me," I reiterated. My instincts were telling me something was fishy.

"No ma'am, sorry," he disconnected the call.

The entire conversation felt strange to me. Somewhere I was sensing that something was wrong. That evening I went to the supermarket and informed them of this phone call. The staff told us that there had not been any such anomaly and they had no person called Deepak employed with them. The conversation was overheard by one of the customers who was a policeman. He told me that this was a recent financial scam of asking the QR code.

It shocked me how smartly the scammers can operate. Thanks to my instincts, I escaped a scam.