New Delhi: There is no way to use a smartwatch to scan FASTag and money out of this, the National Payments Corporation of India and Paytm He said in response to a video being widely circulated on social media and has caused alarm in many circles.
The claims in the video, in which a child cleans the windshield, scans the FASTag using a smartwatch and then flees when questioned, are baseless and false. NPCI, an organization to enable digital payment and settlement systems in India. This is misinformation, Paytm added.
The video clip, widely shared on various social media platforms, has garnered millions of views, shares and comments on multiple YouTube channels, Facebook and Twitter.
A voiceover in Hindi drives the point home: “This is the new scam that has just begun. Kids begging at traffic lights are being given smartwatches that have scanners. While cleaning the car, they Point your smartwatch to FASTag, and it e-scans your FASTag. After that, money is deducted from your Paytm account. Same has happened with me in the past.”
There is no allegation in the 3.42-minute clip.
A similar claim about a ‘FASTag scam’ was also made by magician and illusionist Karan Singh in an interview to the content creator. Vinamre Kasanaa on your friendcast youtube channel. It has been viewed nearly 1.5 lakh times and garnered 11,000 shares.
FASTag, an electronic toll collection system based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, has been made mandatory for all commercial and personal four wheelers for payment at toll plazas since February last year.
While Paytm only discussed child videos in its rebuttal, NPCI discussed the larger issue of videos making fake claims.
“A video is spreading misinformation about Paytm FASTag which incorrectly shows smartwatch scanning FASTag NETC Guidelines, FASTag payments can only be initiated by authorized merchants, onboarded after multiple rounds of testing. Paytm FASTag is completely safe and secure,” Paytm said in a Twitter post.
NPCI also put out a lengthy Twitter post describing the ‘FASTag scam’ video as “baseless” and “false”.
It said the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) FASTag ecosystem is built on a four-party model – NPCI, acquirer bank, issuer bank and toll plaza. It added, “Several layers of security protocols have been put in place to ensure end-to-end secure processing of transactions.
“NETC FASTag operates only for Person to Merchant (P2M) transactions. There is no Person to Person (P2P) transaction facility through the NETC FASTag network. This means that a person can avoid fraudulent transactions through the NETC FASTag ecosystem. I can’t get the money,” it added.
A video claiming that the smartwatch has scanners that are extracting money from FASTags is ‘false’.
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