SBI Cautions Customers About New QR Code Scam

Moneylife Digital Team 30 April 2021

State Bank of India (SBI) has warned its customers about falling for the quick response (QR) code scams - an active prevalent fraud practice in online money transfer transactions.

The country’s largest public lender has asked its customers not to scan any QR code shared by anyone unless the objective is to pay and you know or have verified the recipient.

Cashless transactions and QR codes have become ubiquitous in these covid-stuck times. Unfortunately, cyber fraudsters have also picked this as a new innovative method of scamming even as increasingly various new modi operandi are coming to light every few days to trick people into losing their hard-earned money.

One must be extremely cautious while carrying out the transactions online.

The most important point SBI account holders should know is that the purpose or objective of the QR code is to make a payment, it is not to receive a payment.

The bank said when you resort to such practice, you end up getting money debited from your account instead of receiving it. Hence, SBI has asked its customers not to scan a QR code shared by any person as it could lead to fraudulent transactions.

SBI tweeted from its official handle to alert its customer and wrote, " 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. #StaySafe. "

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. #StaySafe. https://t.co/EXGQB7YFT9 #QRCodes #InternetBanking
— State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) April 27, 2021

In a great, proactive initiative to educate people and caution them, SBI has shared an extremely informative video clip to create the necessary awareness. It would however be nice if the bank can also bring out more such videos in different regional languages too so that it can reach more customers and alert them. The message shared in the video applies to all banks and their customers. You can watch the video posted by SBI.

The video has evidently stated that QR code can only be used for payment and not to receive money. This simple yet very insightful information is not known by many people and this is how scamsters have been making hay. Most people are oblivious of the message contained in the video clip and hence the clip is creating new awareness.

QR code has become an increasingly popular modus operandi for fraudsters to cheat people. With more and more people moving to online transactions, fraud related to the same has been on the rise.

Stay alert. Stay safe.

Comments

User

mohit_zap

2 years ago

Thanks for such a fundamental info about qr code. Many people including me were oblivious n confused about it. As Suresh ji is saying, it will be better if SBI passed this knowledge to customers as a regular customary messages

sureshtb4246

2 years ago

I am SBI Customer, I have Not received any such caution message. What about the forgery/fraud/cheating by SBI itself relating to account of customer