Police in the Khajuraho area of Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district are looking into a clever scam. Thieves switched out QR codes at local shops and gas stations with their own codes. This trick made it so that when customers paid, the money went to the fraudsters instead of the store owners.
So far, about six places, including petrol pumps, have been hit by this scam. Some thieves switched the QR codes directly, while others just stuck their fake codes on top of the real ones.
Atul Dixit, the officer in charge of Khajuraho police station, said, “We know about the problem, but none of the shop owners have officially reported it yet. We will catch the bad guys soon.”
The fraud was discovered when store owners opened their shops in the morning and found no payments were coming in. Omvati Gupta, who runs a medical shop, got a surprise when a customer pointed out that the QR code they scanned showed a different name, “Chhotu Tiwari,” instead of her store’s name.
Gupta quickly took down the fake code and looked at the CCTV footage. It showed three masked men replacing the real QR code late at night. Other customers also spotted the same “Chhotu Tiwari” name on a petrol pump’s QR code.
Nitesh Gupta, another shop owner, lost ₹985 and ₹10 because of a fake QR code outside his shop. Other victims included a popular biryani shop, a paan shop, and several more local businesses.
Now, police are advising all shops to regularly check their QR codes and report anything suspicious.
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