On 6th august 2025, my friend placed an online order on the official GNC India website (a health and wellness brand). The next day, we received a call from a person claiming to be a customer support representative from GNC. The caller used the mobile number +[protected] and stated that the order was not processed correctly because the order ID was not copied at the time of placing the order.
The caller convinced us that to process the refund and place the order correctly, we needed to re-pay the order amount, and the same would be refunded within 5 minutes.
Trusting this explanation, we sent ₹1, 975.50 to UPI ID [protected]@oksbi. Immediately after, the caller claimed that the amount sent was incorrect — saying it should have been ₹1, 975.05 — and that the refund could not be processed. They manipulated us into thinking it was a minor mistake and asked us to make the payment again. Believing it to be a genuine issue, we sent the amount a second time.
After this, the scammer claimed that the refund system required a minimum transaction of ₹5, 000 and requested another payment to "initiate the refund of the total amount". They used social engineering tactics — urgency, fake policies, and technical excuses — to trick my friend into making multiple payments, with the promise of receiving the entire refund after each step.
Over the course of the scam, we were made to transfer a total of ₹24, 000 through UPI payments to the same UPI ID. After the final transaction, the scammer assured us that the refund would be processed in 5–6 hours. However, shortly afterward, the mobile number was switched off permanently, and all contact was lost.
It became clear that this was a planned and coordinated UPI-based scam using impersonation of GNC customer support, also i have call rocords as proof.
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