A viral video explains yet another digital scam (Photo: Instagram/ hmm_nikhil)
Videos narrating different online scams often serve as cautionary tales for others. Recently, food influencer Nikhil Chawla took to social media to share his own family experience in this regard. In an Instagram video, the vlogger explains how his elderly father allegedly became the victim of an online fraud. Nikhil himself was in Kuala Lumpur, but his father was back home in India. His father had ordered a breakfast dish from Swiggy. However, it did not arrive at all. Around 4-5 hours later, his father thought of calling Swiggy's call centre.
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Explaining that his father is 65 years old, the influencer says that he simply Googled "Swiggy call centre" and called the number that came up first. As it turns out, that number was not an official Swiggy helpline. Rather, the person on the other end of the call managed to pull off a UPI scam and took Rs 35000 from Nikhil's father. He did not realise what had truly happened and called them again, asking for a refund. This time, another person responded and said that it was his junior or senior who had taken the call before. In the meanwhile, the fraudsters managed to scan and remotely operate his phone. They stole 2.5-3 lakh rupees via his credit card and also got access to all his bank details. Nikhil states that it was only after they removed the SIM card and put the home's broadband connection off that they were able to switch off the phone.
Towards the end of the video, he cautions people not to fall for such scams. He also reminds them to warn their older relatives about the same, as they are not as tech-savvy. He wondered aloud why such fraudulent numbers are among the top results on Google. He also mentioned some of the problems his family faced after realising what happened and asked for help from users online. Watch the full video below:
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The reel has received 420K views so far. In the comments, Swiggy responded, "Hi Nikhil, as discussed on our call, Swiggy doesn't have an official customer care number. For any issues, use our in-app chat support only. We encourage reporting this matter to the cybercrime authorities and will be able to support you with any information you need."
The following day, Nikhil shared an update on the incident. He explained that Swiggy had taken down the fraudulent site. Now, when one Googles "Swiggy Bank Fraud", the first link that is indexed tells people to be careful about online phishing and scams. However, Nikhil noted that the warnings are detailed in the English language only. He points out that many people of older generations may not be fluent in English. Thus, he hopes that provisions will be made for Hindi and regional languages as well.
Nikhil also thanked those who helped him out and shared the video. Furthermore, he provides more details about what happened on the day his father placed the order. He says that he still doesn't know why the delivery person never turned up with the food that had been ordered. He speculates about possible causes. You can check out the full reel below:
Disclaimer: NDTV does not vouch for the claims in the post by the Instagram user in this video.
Before this, Internet personality Swati Mukund's video on a troubling food delivery order via Swiggy went viral. Read the full story here.
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