Payments
QR codes that take money instead of paying a shop
Scan inside your own UPI app, read the name on the screen, and never scan a code to receive a refund.
A QR code only opens whatever the person who printed it wanted. On a shop counter, a new sticker can sit on top of the shop’s real code. In a chat, a code described as “scan to receive a refund” can be a payment request.
Before you enter the PIN
Scan with your own UPI app. Do not follow a QR into a browser page that asks for a card number.
Read the receiver’s name and the amount. If the name is not the shop, cancel and ask the shop to show the code on their phone.
You never tell the shop your PIN. You type it on your phone, and they do not need to watch.
Refuse a QR that is supposed to send money to you. Receiving money does not need your PIN and does not need you to scan their code.
A code in a parcel SMS or a customs message is not a delivery. It is a payment page.
If the name was wrong and you have already entered the PIN, call 1930 with the UPI reference. A second scan will not reverse the first payment.
If money has already left your account, call 1930 or report at cybercrime.gov.in. This page is awareness information. It does not file a complaint.