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The Delhi High Court has ordered Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram to suspend accounts impersonating the payments and banking fintech startup Razorpay.

Fraudsters were illegally using Razorpay’s name, logo, and trademarks to trick people into sending them money by pretending to offer jobs. They created fake Telegram channels, WhatsApp accounts, and websites to appear legitimate.

One victim lost around Rs 6.71 lakh to this scam, according to a court document. The fraudsters even circulated a forged “Guarantee Agreement” with the Razorpays’ trademarks along with logos of HDFC Bank, Google Pay, SBI, and other companies.

The court has issued several orders, including a John Doe order, to gather information and halt the fraudulent activities. Telecom service providers have been instructed to temporarily suspend certain mobile numbers involved in the scam and to submit identification details of the account holders.

The National Payments Corporation of India has been directed to suspend specific UPI IDs used in the fraud and provide related KYC documents.

A John Doe order is a legal order issued by a court against unknown defendants. It allows a plaintiff to take action against individuals whose identities are not yet known. This type of order is often used in cases involving internet fraud, intellectual property violations, or other situations where the wrongdoers are difficult to identify.

Internet and card-based banking frauds quadrupled in FY24, according to the latest annual report from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

According to supervisory returns collected by the RBI, there were a staggering 29,082 instances of credit/debit card and internet-based fraud in the financial year 2023-2024—an alarming 334% rise from the previous fiscal year when there were nearly 7,000 such instances.

The amount involved in the digital payment frauds jumped 5X to Rs 1,457 crore. It represented roughly 10% of the total fraud, which reached Rs 13,930 crore in FY24.