At a time when hundreds of Paytm users across the country were grappling with payment related issues on their e-wallets, the Noida-based company has filed a case with the CBI against a mere 48-odd customers for having been duped of Rs 6.15 lakh.
According to a report filed by the Press Trust of India, Paytm, which is backed by Chinese Internet giant Alibaba has filed a case with the CBI. The company has alleged that about 48 customers, including some ex-Paytm officials, had asked for and received refunds even though the delivery of orders was made successfully to them. It alleged that customers “illegally” appropriated money refunded in their bank accounts and wallets. It claimed that the acts reflect “serious” fraudulent act and foul play with common intention to wrongfully gain along with such involved customers.
To a Business Line query on why the case was filed with CBI, Paytm said that, "The company has identified about 48 fraudulent users in the physical goods marketplace business, who were trying to game the company’s consumer friendly practices. It regularly monitors its marketplace business to identify any fraudulent or suspicious behaviour. This is a part of the company’s security practices to ensure that genuine users are able to continuously avail the benefits brought to it by Paytm marketplace."
However, the case has raised further questions on Paytm’s security feature and also about the checks and measures or verification the company undertakes while making a refund. The company, which claims to have a strong data and analytics team, has apparently failed to understand as in when and whom to refund.
The company alongwith its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma were trolled on social media for filing a case with the CBI, which is supposed to take up cases of high national importance on orders from Supreme Court or High Courts. However, with digital payments firm Paytm having received the license to run a payment bank, it is neccessary for CBI to investigate the case as it deals with money-related matters. Paytm has not issued any statement in this regard.
Well-known journalist, Shekhar Gupta, tweeted, “Whats going on? Why CBI? Has govt nationalised Paytm? or has it taken over government? Is CBI underemployed? or has it been privatised?”
Another twiteratti, @NameFieldmt said, “When Paytm is duped, CBI registers a case. When Paytm dupes you, @Vijayshekhar just sits back and enjoys your money.” “What is security of Paytm when they can get duped?” said @chnadrusweb.
Meanwhile, several hundred consumers on Paytm have taken to social media against the company after they faced issues of missing funds and inability to make payments for the last 24 hours. While Paytm is yet to address the problem of several customers, the company apologised for the inconvience and said that the problems occured as it was upgrading its system on back of super high traffic that was coming to the platform post demonetisation.
It is also important to mention that the Madhya Pradesh police has booked the directors of Paytm along with authorities of several other e-portals in a case of alleged forgery with over 300 people across the state.