Odisha EOW detects ‘rarest’ QR code manipulation scam of Rs 14 crore; interrogation suggests Chinese link

Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India]: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Odisha Police detected a “rarest and newest” type of case where more than Rs 14 crore has been siphoned off by manipulating QR codes of a Fintech company, an official said.

The police also arrested a man namely Karan Kumar Singh on July 6 in connection with the case who is a resident of Sec-19, from Noida, Uttar Pradesh and brought him to Bhubaneswar on a three-day transit remand.

As per a statement issued by Inspector General of EOW JN Pankaj, the EOW had registered a case based on the complaint filed by Sanjib Kumar Parida, Chief Technology Officer of ‘IServeU Technology Pvt Ltd’, a Bhubaneswar-based Fintech Company on June 29.

The complainant had alleged that they had entered into Technology integration agreements with the Directors of Noida-based Company Payone Digital Services Pvt Ltd during April-May 2023.

“The agreement was for providing Digital Payment Services, and facilitation of the Finotech Service, and accordingly, IServeU had extended its UPI API to the company for commercial utilization,” the complaint said.

The arrested accused, Karan Kumar Singh and his brother Lallu Singh are the Directors of Payone Digital Services Pvt Ltd.

The EWO officials further said that the complainant’s company came to know on reconciliation that there was 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 allegedly manipulated the QR Codes generated by the complainant company and embezzled the extra credit of Rs 14.33 crore,” it added.

The official in a statement said that the money was fraudulently diverted to more than 125 different Bank accounts from the Payout wallet of which, the User ID and Password were shared with Payone Digital Services Pvt. Ltd by the complainant company IServeU.
EWO officials also suspect a Chinese link in the scam.

“It is suspected that many other accused are also involved in this complex and highly technical case. As no such types of cases were noticed before, EOW would be taking the help of experts, in this case, to thoroughly investigate the matter and also come up with advisory so that people can be alerted,” EOW said.
Further probe is underway.