Fact-Check: Seen the 'FASTag Scam' Video? Well, It's Scripted and Defies Logic

The NPCI, Paytm, and ethical hackers have dismissed the claim made in the video of a FASTag scam.

A video showing two men talking about a "FASTag scam" has gone massively viral on social media.

At first, the video shows a kid cleaning the windscreen of the car, while the driver explains to his fellow passenger about how the kid used his watch to steal money from the car's FASTag account.

FASTag is a rechargeable tag that is fitted on vehicles, which facilitates electronic toll/parking fees collection.

It is linked with an account which makes it easy for the driver to make automatic payments, without stopping for long or waiting in a queue at toll plazas.

However, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) – the umbrella body managing FASTag payments – digital payments platform Paytm, and ethical hackers have dismissed the claim in the video.

They have all stated that it is not possible to siphon money from the FASTag account in the way that is mentioned in the viral video.

We also reached out to the Facebook page that first posted the viral video and the admin of the page told us that the video was created for "social awareness."

THE CLAIM

The viral video was first shared on a verified Facebook page called "Baklol Video," which has 24 million followers. The video was shared with a caption that read, "अगर आपकी गाडी पे FASTAG है तो ये वीडियो जरूर देखे".

[Translation: If you have FASTag on your car then definitely watch this video.]

The video was viewed more than 22 million times as of this report being written.

While conducting a keyword search, we found that similar claims were made by a social media influencer who goes by the name 'Karan Singh', on his Facebook page and during a podcast published on YouTube. Singh's page has 2,87,000 followers and the Facebook video was seen 3,600 times. The YouTube podcast had 27,000 views.

The claim was further amplified by right-wing commentator and academic Madhu Purnima Kishwar on Twitter.

Several other Facebook and Twitter users have shared the video and we also found that the video was being shared on WhatsApp. Archives of some of the posts can be found here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We conducted a keyword search for "FASTag scam" and found social media posts by digital payments platform Paytm and NPCI – the umbrella body managing FASTag payments – dismissing the claim.

A social media post by NPCI said that FASTag is based on a Person to Merchant (P2M) model and would not be possible for another individual to take money from it. It further added that transactions were not possible through open internet connectivity.

Another important point mentioned in the NPCI statement was that only whitelisted merchants with permitted IP addresses and URLs were allowed to take money through FASTags.

"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," Paytm wrote on Twitter.

We then checked the NETC guidelines which reiterated the points mentioned in Paytm's tweet.

CLAIM DEFIES LOGIC

As mentioned above, an individual would not be able to take money from the FASTag as the merchant's bank is connected to the toll plaza with the help of the plaza code and a unique acquire ID, which is verified by NPCI.

So, even if a person manages to get hold of a toll plaza's reader, the money will still go to the merchant, which is the toll plaza. Ethical hacker Sunny Nehra explained in detail in this tweet thread:

1/ Explaining working & security of FASTags as that FAKE FASTag scam video is viral

1. Each toll plaza has been allocated unique code.

2. Each toll plaza has mapper acquirer Bank.

3. Both the combinations are mapped at NETC system.

4. Geo codes are mapped for each toll plaza.

— Sunny Nehra (@sunnynehrabro) June 25, 2022

Cybersecurity expert and Founder and CEO of CloudSEK Rahul Sasi also put out a post on LinkedIn wherein he explained how this isn't a system that a kid can hack with a smartwatch.

Moreover, if such a thing was possible, people would get ripped off at parking lots and lose money everyday.

VIDEO CREATED FOR 'AWARENESS' PURPOSES

We conducted a reverse image search of the people featured in the video and found that the person narrating the process in which the purported siphoning of money takes place is a YouTuber with a verified handle called BB Pranks and regularly posts scripted videos.

Other social media handles linked to his YouTube page identified the user as Anubhav Golia.

However, we could not find the video posted by the user on any of their social media platforms. We then reached out to the admin of the page Baklol Video who told us that the video was created for "social awareness."

While this report was being written, the admin updated the caption of the video and added a disclaimer line calling the video "scripted."

Several such scripted videos have recently gone viral with people trying to spin false and misleading narratives. The Quint's WebQoof team has debunked several of these videos and you can read about them here.

(Update: The story has been updated to add a tweet from Sunny Nehra, an ethical hacker, and Rahul Sasi, CEO of CloudSEK.)

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