Selling used wares online? Beware of cons masquerading as buyers

Two techies who separately posted OLX ads to sell their beds ended up losing thousands of rupees to online fraudsters.

Fraudsters contacted them evincing interest in the item they have posted for sale and asked them to scan the QR code they sent. Instead of receiving the money for the item being sold, the two techies found money being debited from their bank accounts.

Using the QR code to pilfer money has become the most common form of online fraud and more people are falling victim to this method in the last two years, cybercrime police said.

In the first incident, Sapna Bulchandani, 29, who resides in Kasavanahalli, lost Rs 60,000 when the man who responded to her October 30 OLX ad to sell her bed asked her to scan the QR code he sent to pay for the bed.