Beware of Paytm scammers

I am sharing this post to alert people who use paytm for money transactions. It happened with me today. 

I wanted to sell my old sofa set, so I put the details in olx yesterday. Today morning I got a call from someone who is interested in buying the sofa set. He sounded very keen in buying and he didn't negotiate the price. I thought since I have already put it at a very low price, he must have understood that there is no scope of negotiation. He asked me for my address details. I texted him my address details and told him to give a visit to see the sofa. After sometime, he gave me a call again telling he would like to buy the sofa without seeing, someone will come to collect it in the evening. I asked him how can you just buy without even seeing it. He said, he has seen it on computer and he is satisfied with that. It sounded little fishy to me. I ignored. 

After sometime, this guy called me again saying that he will transfer money to my paytm. I asked him you sounded as if you are in a very hurry to buy the sofa. I asked him where does he stay. He said some place "Wampi". Wampi? I have never heard of this place. I thought since the ad is posted in location "Pune" it could be some place in Pune. So, I asked him where is this Wampi. He said it's near Surat. I was surprised, I said my sofa is in Pune, how are you going to take it. He said, one cargo tempo is coming from Pune to his side, he has asked those people to put the sofa in that. It sounded more fishy but I didn't feel any alarming thing there as sofa is with me and I won't give my sofa without getting the payment. He said he will transfer the money via paytm and hanged up the phone. I didn't take him seriously. 

Later, when I was in office, he called me again. He said I transferred you INR 10K to my account. Please go to paytm and complete the payment. I said let me check and I will get back to you. I checked my phone, I got the below sms...

This sms definitely sounds fishy. It doesn't say about crediting money into my account, rather it says about debiting money from my account. Then, I quickly open the paytm notification...

 "Pay"!!! No way. I immediately declined it. I got another call from the same guy asking if I received the money. Instead of getting into it and telling anything I simply said sorry, my sofa is sold to another person by my husband. Out of anger he gave me all abusive hindi gaali which I neither understand nor care a damn. I hung up the phone, blocked the number. I am sure this would be well planned scam carried out by team of thugs trying to loot innocent simple people. 

Dear all, please be extremely alert when you do any kind of online transaction through any kind of app or website. Don't share your OTPs. Words like "Pay" and "Debit" mean your money will go, not that you will receive money. Stay alert, stay safe.