Navi Technologies, the fintech venture led by Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, has fallen victim to a sophisticated cyber fraud amounting to ₹14.26 crore, reported Economic Times.
According to the media report, scammers exploited a system vulnerability in the company’s payment gateway, allowing them to conduct fraudulent transactions over a two-week period in December.
A formal complaint was filed on Saturday with the Whitefield Cybercrime Police in Bengaluru, the report added. The vigilance team at Navi Technologies revealed that the fraud involved the company’s third-party payment gateway (TPAP), which was used to process transactions for services such as mobile recharges and EMI payments via Navi’s app.
During this time, the scammers exploited a bug that permitted users to alter the payable amount after initiating a payment. By reducing the payable amount to just ₹1, the transactions were recorded as successfully completed, while Navi Technologies was charged the full original amount, the report highlighted.
The breach comes at a challenging time for Navi Technologies. In October, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed restrictions on the firm, citing concerns over excessive interest rates on loans. Authorities have launched an investigation to identify the culprits, with cybercrime experts warning businesses about the growing threat of payment gateway exploitation.
This case highlights the urgent need for robust cyber defences in fintech platforms to prevent such attacks and maintain customer trust in an increasingly digitised financial ecosystem.
