Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar has urged consumers against fake messages, emails and calls from scammers pretending to be company officials and duping them.

Shekhar took to social media and warned customers that the fraudulent messages are not being made by the company's officials and advised them to get all their issues and queries resolved at the authorised PayTM centers only.

In a series of tweets, the founder said that the fraudsters are trying to take over customers' accounts by sending text and emails for KYC (Know Your Customer) verification.

“Pls (please) don’t trust any SMS sent on blocking your Paytm account or suggestion to do a KYC. These are fraudsters…” Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar said in a tweet.

In another tweet, Shekhar shared an image of an SMS sent by fraudsters to PayTM customers, which stated that their PayTM account will be blocked and their money forfeited if they fail to complete their KYC at the earliest. A phone number was also included in the text message that claimed to be the official contact getting the KYC done.

The warnings came as hundreds of customers filed complaints about fraud claims after getting duped by scamsters posing as PayTM employees.

For duping users, fraudsters generally ask the targeted consumer to download a mobile or desktop application such as Anydesk, Quicksupport and TeamViewer to resolve the KYC issue. These applications allow remote access to the user's account, including PIN details. They then siphon off funds from the target's account.

According to the data shared at Rajya Sabha on Tuesday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, RBI has received 1,997 complaints against payments banks in the Banking Ombudsman and Reserve Bank of India’s Consumer Education and Protection Cells between July and November of 2019.