Jaipur: City police will question a 19-year-old man arrested by Delhi police on Tuesday in a rare and carefully executed AI-based QR code fraud. This fraud allowed him to quietly divert high-value UPI payments while customers and shopkeepers remained unaware until it was too late.Delhi police identified the accused as Manish Verma, a resident of Chaksu in Jaipur. A senior Jaipur police official said the FIR in the case was registered in New Delhi, and the arrest was carried out by Delhi police. However, Jaipur police will now question the accused to ascertain whether he used the same method to defraud merchants in Jaipur as well.Investigators said Verma exploited the routine nature of QR-based payments by discreetly circulating manipulated QR codes linked to his own bank account. Customers scanning these codes received successful payment confirmations on their phones, but the money never reached the merchants’ accounts. During questioning, the accused told police that he drew inspiration from a South Indian film in which the protagonist pastes QR codes linked to his own account over those displayed by shopkeepers.The fraud came to light after a customer lodged a complaint, stating that a digital payment made at a garment store was not credited to the merchant. The customer purchased a lehenga priced at Rs 2.50 lakh and made two UPI payments of Rs 90,000 and Rs 50,000 by scanning QR codes displayed at the shop. Despite showing screenshots confirming successful payments, the shop owner said the amount was never credited to the store’s official bank account.Police examined the billing system, transaction records, and digital payment infrastructure. An analysis of the UPI transaction trail revealed that the payments were diverted to a bank account not linked to the shop. Further scrutiny showed the account was being operated from Rajasthan, which eventually led them to Jaipur district and the accused.Investigators said Verma typically contacted vendors online, showed interest in their products, and asked for QR codes to make payments. He allegedly used AI-based software to alter the payment details embedded in the QR codes before sending the modified versions back to the vendors. In some cases, the edited QR codes were automatically saved in the vendors’ phone galleries, with the shopkeeper’s name unchanged, making the manipulation difficult to detect.
