Delhi Police: Reward App Used 41,000+ Phones to Send Scam SMS

Police say users earned Rs 1 to Rs 3 per redemption while the app used their phones to send 9 to 12 phishing messages each time.

Users of a reward app got Rs 1 to Rs 3 each time they redeemed points. Each time, according to Delhi Police, their phone screens locked for around 30 seconds while the app sent 9 to 12 phishing SMS messages from the device.

South-West Delhi cyber police announced on Saturday, Oct. 31, that they had arrested five people over the network, IANS reported. Police linked it to 544 complaints on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, with alleged losses above Rs 10 crore. The messages posed as traffic challans, delivery verification and reward points.

The Rs 2.21 lakh fake challan SMS

It started with one text. The complainant received an SMS with a link supposedly for paying a traffic challan. After he clicked it, an unauthorised transaction of Rs 2.21 lakh went through on his credit card, The Tribune reported. An e-FIR was registered under Section 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at the South-West district cyber police station on Nov. 28, 2025.

Technical analysis put the start of bulk SMS activity around Nov. 3, 2025, with about 3,300 suspicious messages sent to people across the country, according to IANS. The money trail first led to an account at the National Bank of Kuwait, which police said made it hard to link anyone quickly.

Raids in Mumbai, Lucknow, Delhi, Rajasthan and Punjab ended in five arrests: Moti Singh Baghela, Harshpal, Vicky, Vishal Das Vaishnav and Barjesh Kumar. Police said they recovered a car, a gold chain, 15 mobile phones and tablets, 59 debit cards, 52 passbooks and cheque books, 14 company stamps, five point-of-sale machines and eight QR scanners, The Hawk reported.

30 seconds, 9 to 12 messages

Police said the app, which Delhi News Live described as a fake foreign app, drew more than 41,000 users into a reward arrangement. When a user redeemed a reward, the screen stayed locked for around 30 seconds. In that window the app generated and sent between 9 and 12 messages with fraudulent links, according to IANS.

Police alleged the app exploited the redemptions to send the messages from users' own phones. The users got Rs 1 to Rs 3 per redemption.

Rs 2 crore in three days

Police alleged that about Rs 2 crore went out in many small payments to more than 41,000 users within three days. Split evenly, that's just under Rs 488 per user. At Rs 1 to Rs 3 per redemption, each user would need somewhere between roughly 163 and 488 redemptions to collect that much.

The 3,300 suspicious messages police traced don't fit that picture. At 9 to 12 messages per redemption, they'd cover fewer than 400 redemptions in total. The reports don't say whether the 3,300 covers all the messages or only those traced so far.

Police said further investigation is underway. None of the reports reviewed gives a court date for the five accused.