How to Identify Fake Payment Screenshots

Online payment methods are a blessing. Cashless, instant transactions and no need to worry about change anymore. However, all is not good in this digital world of finance. One of the recent scams that have come to light are the fake payment screenshots. A real headache, fake payment screenshots can be used by literally anyone to scam a shopkeeper or a business owner. 

If you are a business owner or a vendor and thousands throng to your store for payments, then it is time that you start paying closer attention to fake payment screenshots. Ensuring you have received the payment via online methods can be quite hard to pin down, making it a rather easy scam to pull off for fraudsters.

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What is a fake payment screenshot?

Let us imagine a regular scenario – a person comes to your store, chooses an item, and makes the payment via UPI. Once the payment is complete, the person ideally flips their phone around and shows you that the transaction is completed. 

However, if the person is a fraudster and looking for a chance to dupe you, here is what can happen – the person will show you a fake screenshot on his phone which says the payment is done, when in fact, it is a scam. The fake payment screenshot will look exactly like the original payment screenshots appear, which is why it can be difficult to figure out. 

Such frauds are upsetting and can be loss-making for those who are running businesses. Unfortunately, these scams are only getting more popular each day. Thankfully, there are a couple of ways which can be used to tackle this  real problem of verifying your digital payments. 

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Scenarios where fake payment screenshots are shown

Here are some of the scenarios that you need to be extremely careful of:

• Offline merchants

Often, offline merchants or local vendors are all too busy managing the store that they do not check if the transaction has been confirmed from their side. As a result, it is very easy to pull off such a scam in such instances.

• Online businesses

There are many small businesses that have now moved online, such as on Facebook or Instagram. Fraudsters can order a product and show a fake payment screenshot as proof of payment. Now, such small businesses are usually eager to please their customers and increase their revenue, which is why they deliver the product right away. It is only later on that they may realise that they have been scammed via a fake payment screenshot. 

• Cash to money 

Sometimes, fraudsters could also approach local businesses and ask for cash in exchange for online payment. Now, this could happen in multiple situations, such as an emergency, an urgent need for cash to pay the cab fare, etc. However, once the cash is handed over, the fraudster may show a fake payment screenshot and take off with the hard-earned money. 

• Fake money transfer

This is yet another type of fake payment screenshot fraud, where a random stranger will text you on WhatsApp and ask you to pay back the amount that they have sent you by mistake. They will even send you a fake payment screenshot showing the same. Moreover, if you deny paying them back, they may threaten you with legal action, trying to push you into sending them money. Do not send it back under any circumstances. 

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Steps to stay away from fake payment screenshots

Here’s what you can do to ensure you are not a victim of such kinds of malpractices:

• Always remember to check your Airtel Thanks UPI app to see if the transaction is actually completed. Every successful transaction can be checked via the Airtel Thanks app if the payment has been made on your Airtel UPI ID.
• Do not trust the screenshots that customers may show you. Instead, check your own smartphone for a notification. UPI transactions will always show notifications – both as an SMS and an e-mail from your bank.
• You could also register for a smart speaker that makes a brief announcement whenever you receive payment on your account.

Remember, fake payment screenshots have now become notoriously popular. However, you can always stay safe by making sure that you follow these steps above.