A viral video is doing the rounds on social media, purportedly showing a QR code “scam” in action, where customers are being allegedly asked to pay for parking, but the UPI account seems to be unaffiliated to the government authority.
The video, which at the time of writing has over 18 lakh views, showed a customer questioning the parking attendant about why the name on the code did not match the parking authority, but was of a person named “Vinod Kumar”.
The video, posted by meme account Prof Cheems, with the text: “New Scam Unlocked”, received responses from Razorpay founder Shashank Kumar and Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
What did Shashank Kumar, Vijay Shekhar Sharma say?
Quoting the video post on X, Paytm founder-CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who is very active on X, said that the video proved the usefulness of Paytm’s Soundbox, which loudly announces each and every transaction at the end of payments.
“Only Paytm Soundbox solves problem for many offline scams!” he wrote on X.
Further, in his own quote response to the video, Razorpay founder Shashank Kumar stated, “In the next software upgrade we will disable gallery access unless really needed for the seller.”
Notably, the device on video was branded as Razorpay.
How did netizens react?
Responses to the three posts on X were filled with jokes and memes, but there were also those who commended Shashank Kumar for taking the feedback seriously. The responses to Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s post commended him on making the most of a marketing opportunity.
However, there were multiple commenters who pointed out that parking authorities in Delhi and Mumbai hire contractors to collect these charges and such individuals may use their individual QR codes to collect payment. They added that such payments would only be a scam if the parking attendant refused to provide a receipt or ticket for the transaction.
“How is it a scam if the attendant gives a receipt? Just another car driver finding ways to not pay even the highly subsidised car parking charges,” wrote one.
Another criticised the language used by the driver in the video, adding, “MCD gives contract a year or max 5 years to an individual or an organisation on some annual charges! After that contractor collect money and organise parking and hire staff (sic).”
One commenter from Mumbai added, “I don’t know about MCD, but in Mumbai its the contractor who collects the funds and pays the BMC. So obviously this driver / guy shooting the film doesn’t realise that payments don’t go directly into the MCD / BMC accounts, it’s all outsourced now.”