Man Shares How PhonePe Saved Him From Rs 44,000 ‘HDFC Credit Card’ Scam

A man took to the American website Reddit to share how PhonePe saved him from a scam today. The Redditor, who goes by “Sound_Less” online, recounted receiving a call from someone claiming to be from the HDFC Credit Card Department, offering him a lifetime free credit card. Believing the call to be genuine, he went ahead with the process, including sharing an OTP for logging into the platform.

“She then told me my address and the last 4 digits of the card to convince me that it’s a genuine call. And asked me to confirm all the details on the card like validity, CVV number and card number, I gave it all. She then told me that she had forwarded my file to the senior and they will call for further verification and cut down the call,” he added.

Read| Man Outwits Scammer in Rs 8,999 UPI Scam. Here’s How He Foiled it

“Sound_Less” received another call two hours later. “This time she also asked for OTP, the moment I saw the OTP, there was mention of PhonePe…. I actually read the message this time and it was a transaction message of 44 thousand rupees.”

He also shared the text message that he received on his phone. It reads, “OTP is 682241 for txn of INR 44020.00 at PHONEPE PRI on HDFC Bank card ending 5401. Valid till 01:29. Do not share OTP for security reasons.”

“The first time they asked for OTP, it was for login into mycardshdfcdotcom to convince me that they know all my details. And 2nd time it was an transaction message,” he wrote, detailing how he narrowly avoided the ₹44,000 scam.

Take a look at the Reddit post:

The man shared about the scam two days ago on Reddit. It has since then accumulated over 1,000 upvotes and still counting. Many even dropped comments on the post.

Here’s how people reacted to the post below:

“Time and again, we are notified by RBI and Banks to not share OTP to anyone including if they are calling from the bank itself,” posted an individual.

Also Read| Delhi Lawyer Calls Amazon iPhone Exchange Offer ‘Scam’ In Viral Post

Another added, “Bro hope you know OTP is only for domestic transactions and not international. Just enter CVV and you are done. First of all, get your card blocked and get it replaced due to fraud. If you get it regular replace unfortunately HDFC gives same card number and CVV.”

“More power to you OP! Atleast you have the courage to admit your mistake and learn from it!” expressed a third.

A fourth commented, “Yoo, same thing happened to me a few months ago. The caller in my case was impersonating Kotak bank, they knew card number, expiry date and home address, so I was convinced that it was real. Then she asked for my CVV; I thought that this is real, I thought surely they knew my CVV beforehand and just need to confirm it, so I told her incorrect CVV. Clearly, it didn’t work, so she sent an OTP, that’s when I began suspecting her, told her incorrect OTP, then she sent 2nd OTP where it was mentioned “OTP xyz for you trx of 24000″ and I just hung up the call and saved myself a lot of trouble.”