Fraud by e-Mitra Agent

Noorbi Pati Rehmat is from Untwal village in Alwar in Rajasthan. Her husband passed away 5 years ago and since then she has been receiving the widow pension. She goes to the local e-mitra (digital kiosk service point of access) outlet in her village to withdraw the money through her Aadhar card. She doesn’t know how to read and write so her son would check her bank statements from time to time. Once when he was visiting her he checked the bank statements and asked her how much money she had withdrawn; the statements showed much more than what she had actually withdrawn. As it turns out, the e-mitra agent had made her put her fingerprint but said that the payment had failed so he asked her to go and behind her back he had withdrawn money. She went along with her son to his centre and after a lot of argument and accusations her returned the money.

Noorbi was contacted by DEF’s SoochnaPreneur (Information Entrepreneur) “name” after this happened. “Name” has now taken the responsibility to not let this happen with anyone else in her village. She has been spreading the message through word of mouth about fraud cases such as Noori’s case and telling people to be well aware about financial transactions. SoochnaPreneurs like “name” are working hard to fight fake news and misinformation and now unfortunately with the rise in fraud cases due to increased dependency on digital tools, they have also taken the responsibility to fight against fraud.