CBI registers FIR on PayTm’s customer for cheating

In limelight of various events at PayTm, digital wallet giant has accused 15 of its fraudulent customers and CBI has registered FIR.

The complaint from the Paytm’s Manager (Legal), M Sivakumar, claimed that the company makes payment for defective products received by customers and arranges for pickup of the damaged product which is sent to the merchant. The process is done by a team of customer care executives who have been assigned specific IDs and passwords to handle such complaints.

A Paytm spokesperson said, “Paytm has identified about 48 fraudulent users in the physical goods marketplace business, who were trying to misuse the company’s consumer friendly practices. Paytm regularly monitors its marketplace business to identify any suspicious behavior as part of the company’s security practices to ensure that genuine users are able to continuously avail the benefits brought to them by Paytm marketplace. Paytm marketplace has robust risk management practices and regularly reports users who try to misuse the company’s fair usage policies.”

The company alleges that between 2014-16, in 48 cases customers has received refunds even though the delivery of orders was successful.

“Wherein delivery of orders were successful and satisfactory to the customer, refund should not happen. However, in all these 48 cases, refund of order amount happened to the respective customers to the tune of Rs 6.15 lakh,” the complaint, which is now part of the FIR with CBI.

According to an CBI agency spokesperson, “The CBI can register cases under IT Act in the territory of Delhi even on complaints from and against private individuals. This has been happening since 2000.”
A CBI official said that the agency has investigated complaints from Paytm and private banks such as ICICI Bank in the past, too.

Incidentally, the CBI has repeatedly pleaded with courts, including in the case of the Vyapam scam, to not hand over cases to it as it is overburdened and saddled with vacancies.

A former CBI officer said “While the CBI can legally investigate all IT fraud cases in Delhi, it is rather unusual for it to entertain a private complaint of merely Rs 6 lakh of fraud. Such complaints are generally dealt with by Delhi Police,”.

In the FIR registered Thursday, the CBI mentioned as suspects 15 customers of the $5 billion digital wallet company and unknown officials of Paytm, all residents of Delhi.