Odisha EOW detects the biggest QR code manipulation scam of over Rs 14 Crore

Suranjan Mishra Published On : Jul 8, 2023 at 2:54 PM

Bhubaneswar: In one of the rarest and newest types of cyber financial fraud, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch detected a case of huge fraud in which more than Rs 14 crore has been siphoned off by manipulating quick response (QR) codes of a Fintech company.

The EOW, Bhubaneswar has arrested accused Karan Kumar Singh, a resident of Cec-19 in Noida of UP from Noida locality on July 6 in EOW PS Case No-21, dated-29.06.2023, U/s 420/406/467/468/471/120-B IPC, r/w Section 65 and Section 66 (D) of the IT Act, an EOW source said today.

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The accused was produced before the CJM in Goutam Budha Nagar of UP on July 7 and was brought to Bhubaneswar on the strength of a 3-day transit remand for his production before the Designated Court under OPID-cum-SPL Court for EOW in Cuttack.

According to the EOW source, this case was registered on the report of Sanjib Kumar Parida, Chief Technology Officer of ‘IServeU Technology Pvt Ltd’, a Bhubaneswar-based Fintech Company with the allegation that during April and May 2023, they had entered into technology integration agreements with the directors of Noida-based company M/s Payone Digital Services Pvt Ltd, providing Digital Payment Services, for facilitation of the Fintech Service, and accordingly IServeU had extended its UPI API to the company for the commercial utilisation.

Karan Kumar Singh and his brother Lallu Singh are the directors of M/s Payone Digital Services Pvt Ltd. On 19.06.2023, the complainant’s company came to know on reconciliation that there is a significant difference in the cash balance in their Nodal Bank account maintained with the FINO Bank.

On verification of the UPI logs, it came to light that Karan Singh and Lallu Singh both directors of M/s Payone Digital Services Pvt Ltd by manipulating the QR codes generated by the complainant company have embezzled the extra credit of approximately Rs 14.33 crore of the complainant’s company IServeU and fraudulently diverted the amount to more than 125 different Bank Accounts from the Payout wallet of which, the User ID and Password were shared to Payone Digital Services Pvt Ltd by the Complainant company IServeU.

Notably, it is suspected that there are many other accused involved in this complex and highly technical case. As there is no such type of case has been noticed before, EOW would be taking the help of experts, in this case, to thoroughly investigate the matter and also come up with an advisory so that people can be alerted.