Paytm Mall investigates internal fraud with EY

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
May 13, 2019

The e-commerce platform Paytm Mall has brought in the audit and consulting firm Ernst & Young to investigate an alleged cash-back fraud inside the business where employees are accused of creating fake vendors.

Paytm Mall is currently working with E&Y to investigate a fraud case, TNN reported. Two sources told TNN that a group of junior to mid-level Paytm Mall staff are believed by the business to have embezzled the company by creating a fake list of vendors, orders, and customers. The employees are believed to have used cash-back offers on fake orders and the  vendors involved in the orders are believe to have been complicit.

Paytm Mall told the Times of India that it is currently working “to build a technology-driven fraud prevention system”. The business began to suspect the fraud during the annual audit of Paytm Mall’s finances for the 2019 financial year which ended on March 31, 2019, said one of the anonymous sources. The source also reported that the fake ordered were generally low-value to avoid detection for the longest possible time. 

“Apart from the administration, finance and other support functions, the company also has a business operations team which works closely with partnered merchants to plan and execute cashback offers and promotions, leaving scope for collusion,” said a Paytm spokesperson in a statement. “The EY partnership will also undertake audit and fraud prevention using both human and artificial intelligence.”