Recently, a video showing a poor kid scamming a car owner on the pretext of cleaning a windscreen went viral. Research shows the video is fake.
A video recently went viral depicting a destitute youngster defrauding a car owner under the guise of wiping the glass of a car. The movie was supposed to show how simple it is to swindle FASTag users and take money from the wallet attached to the RIFD tag. The video essentially showed a tiny child wiping the windshield while reading the FASTag on his watch. However, immediately after this video became viral, it was discovered to be a hoax.
Fake FASTag Scam Video
After the video went viral and several FASTag users started fearing getting scammed, TOI‘s Gadgets Now got into touch with ethical hacker Sunny Nehra who was quick to tell that the video is fake. The hacker said it is impossible to steal money from the FASTag account so easily. Nehra even highlighted the same on the popular microblogging site, Twitter. He explained the working of FASTags and the security system they come with. He said –
- Every Toll Plaza holds a unique code allocated to it by FASTag
- Every Toll Plaza has a napper acquirer bank.
- The two are mapped at NETC (National Electronic Toll Collection) system.
- Through RFID technology, NETC facilitates payments at NETC-enabled toll booths without requiring to stop.
- Geo codes are mapped for all toll plazas that support FASTag
- The IP addresses at the tolls are whitelisted by banks, SI and NPCI
All of this means that only toll and parking plazas licenced by banks and NETC will be able to begin transactions. This, too, is only possible at the registered geo-locations and nowhere else. Furthermore, a toll plaza ID generated by and known to SI, acquirer bank, and NPCI is required for each transaction.
“NPCI is connected to member banks via its network, and there is no possibility for these transactions to leak,” Nehra argues. Notification alerts are another another built-in security feature provided by FASTag. When a consumer uses FASTag to pay, he receives an SMS with the Toll Name, Transactional Date, Transaction Amount, and Available Balance in his FASTag account. In fact, vehicle users can even check the toll fare on NHAI websites for all the toll plazas.
Paytm terms viral video as fake
A statement issued by Paytm on the viral video reads – “A video is spreading misinformation about Paytm FASTag that incorrectly shows a smartwatch scanning FASTag. As per NETC guidelines, FASTag payments can be initiated only by authorised merchants, onboarded after multiple rounds of testing. Paytm FASTag is completely safe & secure.”