Sachin Bansal’s Navi Technologies defrauded of Rs 14.26 crore by scammers

Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal’s fintech venture, Navi Technologies, was defrauded of Rs 14.26 crore last month. The scammers, posing as customers, exploited a bug in the system to carry out the fraud, according to media reports.

A case has been filed in Bengaluru by the Whitefield cybercrime police on Saturday against unidentified scammers.

A vigilance officer at Navi Technologies explained that for 14 days in December, customers were able to make payments for services such as mobile recharges and EMIs through the app using a third-party payment gateway (TPAP).

During this period, once a customer initiated the payment process, the payment gateway allowed them to edit the payable amount—a feature the scammers took advantage of to input their desired sum.

After the payment was processed, the scammers accessed the TPAP gateway and reduced the payable amount to Re 1. As a result, the system incorrectly marked the transaction as successful for Re 1, while Navi Technologies was charged the original full amount.

This incident comes shortly after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lifted restrictions it had placed on Navi Technologies in October, following concerns about the company charging excessive interest rates when sanctioning and disbursing new loans.