Indore: Two Arrested For Cheating People Of Cash Using Fake UPI App; The Accused Generated A Fake Screenshot Of Payment To Con The Gullible

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Two people were arrested on Sunday for cheating people of cash using a fake UPI app. The accused used to approach petrol pumps and commercial establishments, requesting that they needed cash urgently and would pay through UPI.

They took cash and generated a fake UPI payment screenshot through a fraudulent application. The accused used this method to deceive salesmen of two petrol pumps in this fashion.

Additional DCP (zone-2) Amrendra Singh informed the media persons that Nitin Patidar, a resident of Mitrabandhu Nagar, had lodged a complaint saying that he worked as a salesman at Patidar Fuel Station on Kanadiya Road. Two people on a scooter reached there on May 22, saying they needed Rs 6000 in cash urgently.

They told the complainant that they would transfer money online through Phonepe after receiving the cash. At first, the complainant refused to give them money but they told him that the father of one of them was admitted to a hospital and they needed money to buy medicines but were unable to withdraw it from the ATM.

Seeing them in trouble, the complainant gave them cash and allowed them to transfer money. After this, they made a fake transaction using a fake UPI app and showed a screenshot of the online payment to the complainant. While he checked the history of online payment, both the accused managed to flee from there.

The complainant found that Rs 6000 was not received in the account. He also waited for a few days but the money was still not transferred in the bank account of the petrol pump.

The complainant narrated the incident to his friend Rohit Prajapat, who worked as a salesman at another petrol pump on Bypass Road. His friend informed him that two youths riding a scooter cheated him of Rs 4500 in the same way.

A team from Kanadiya police station was constituted for the arrest of the accused. The team somehow managed to arrest two people named Suvesh alias Chhotu Parmar, a resident of Chunur village in Dhar district and Dheeraj Goyal of Mahalaxmi Nagar area of the city in connection with the fraud.

The two allegedly confessed to their crime and informed the police that they had duped more than 24 people using a fake UPI app.

Modus operandi

According to the additional DCP, the accused mainly targeted petrol pumps, crowded shops and elderly shopkeepers of the city, making fake transactions through a fake Phonepe application.

The accused got the fake mobile app from a social media app and downloaded it on their mobile phone. It worked exactly like the original Phonepe application. When the accused made payment through the fake app, the transaction and the name of the person to whom the money was sent also appeared on the screen, but in reality the money was not received in the account of the merchants.

Usually people did not pay much attention due to the small amount and thought that the money was not received due to technical problems and that it would come in a day or two. The fraudsters used to cheat people by lying about their family problems like father’s hospitalization, money not being withdrawn from ATM, need of cash to buy medicines, etc.

Published on: Sunday, June 08, 2025, 11:43 PM IST