Indian Version of 'Baemin' Turned into a Playground for Fraudsters

Promotional image of Indian delivery app 'Swiggy', unrelated to the article content [Photo by Swiggy]

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A customer who received a call from a delivery app call center in the middle of the night had their bank account information on their phone completely compromised, resulting in a loss of over ten million won. When the food delivery ordered through the app was delayed, the man found the call center contact and called, only to have his phone hacked and lose tens of millions of won.

Swiggy, known as the Indian version of ‘Baemin (Baedal Minjok)’, has become a playground for scammers. Swiggy is a delivery platform that allows users to order food from local restaurants through a mobile app. Founded in 2014, it has attracted investments from promising investors such as SoftBank and Accel. At one point, its corporate value exceeded $10 billion, making it a decacorn (a company valued at over $10 billion), surpassing unicorn status (valued at over $1 billion). Scams involving Swiggy have become sophisticated, intelligent, and organized crimes, involving creating fake call center accounts to induce contact or directly reaching out to victims.

In a previous case involving a woman, the scammers contacted her pretending that someone was trying to access her customer account and tricked her into revealing various personal and financial information. The scammers logged into the customer’s account, withdrew money from bank accounts, purchased goods with credit cards, and resold them to make money. They used a voice guidance system to make it appear as if the calls were sent from the official call center system. The amount the woman lost reached 1 million rupees (approximately 16 million won).

Promotional image of Indian delivery app 'Swiggy', unrelated to the article content [Photo by Swiggy]

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A man in his 60s, the father of a famous Indian food influencer, was also scammed out of tens of millions of won. After ordering breakfast on Swiggy, he contacted customer service when the delivery did not arrive even after 3 to 4 hours. He searched for ‘Swiggy call center’ on Google and called the first phone number that appeared. This account was also fake. Each time he called, his financial information was stolen, and he lost hundreds of thousands of won.

The scam did not end there. After realizing he had been scammed, the man contacted the call center again and ended up giving away even more information, resulting in a loss of 3 million rupees (approximately 48.5 million won). The son posted his father’s experience on his social media, warning that "elderly people who are not familiar with IT should not become victims of scams" and that scam phone numbers should not appear at the top of Google search results.

Swiggy responded to the son’s post by clarifying that there is no phone number for customer service and advised using the customer support chat available within the app. They also recommended reporting the incident to the authorities. Following this incident, Swiggy removed fraudulent websites and issued warnings about online scams. However, some claim that insiders such as delivery drivers or customer service staff may be involved in the scams.

Meanwhile, Swiggy posted a scam alert stating, "Swiggy customer service centers never request sensitive bank information. If such a request is made, report it immediately." Precautions include ▲ fake free customer service numbers promoted on external portals pretending to be Swiggy ▲ suspicious posts on fake websites, blogs, and social media sites ▲ suspicious links sent via text messages or emails ▲ phone calls requesting personal/financial information ▲ scams that induce disclosure of sensitive information by claiming refund amounts are on hold.

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