Big tech apps that make life easy are scamming you - Rest of World

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By Soumya Gupta

10 June 2026

Take a moment to think about your day: How many things did you do online? Perhaps you made a call or two via WhatsApp. You sent at least one WhatsApp text. You might have looked up a restaurant, office, or other location on Google Maps, perhaps run a Google search, and used Gmail to send an email. You might have built a shopping cart on Amazon after spotting a brand while scrolling Instagram. Along the way, you may have forgotten to book an Uber, until a WhatsApp message reminded you – “where are you?”

Big Tech companies are increasingly running our lives. We rely on the apps for many, if not most, of our basic tasks. And the result is that we trust them to give us the right information, connect to our loved ones, bring us things securely, and get us places safely. That is a lot of trust placed in a very small group of private, profit-driven companies. What happens if they are incorrect? A lot of damage.

And it can happen to anyone. It happened to my partner and me.

To celebrate his birthday, my partner Vijay decided to host a small party at our home. We reached for our trusty neighborhood shop Seasons Wines. For the last few years, Google has improved its search results for several categories with “cards” – a conveniently summarized panel of all information related to what you just searched for. In the case of a business, this card throws up its full name, address, Google Maps location, and a helpful “call” button linking directly to their number.

So Vijay cranked up the Seasons Wine shop search result, and pressed call. “Hi, I wanted to order two bottles of red wine, one bottle of gin, one bottle of that new whiskey that you recommended, and six cans of my regular beer,” Vijay said.

“Yes sir, that comes to 10,671 rupees. Please pay on Google Pay and then we will send the order,” a voice said on the other end.

“Usually, I use my credit card with the delivery guy,” Vijay said.

“Yes sir, but this is a big order. For these orders we have started a new prepayment policy,” the man on the phone said.

Seasons Wine had never asked us to prepay an order. But we had never placed such a big order before. We proceeded to Google Pay the entire amount on the contact number.

An hour passed. “Where is the alcohol?” I asked Vijay.

Vijay called back. “Sir the order is ready, but because it is a big order, we need you to give your permit number,” the guy said.

Now my antenna was up. Seasons had never asked for that. Something was wrong.

I took the phone from Vijay. “What is this permit?”

“Ma’am, you have to pay 25,000 rupees for a Maharashtra government liquor permit, otherwise a one-time permit is 1,000 rupees,” the guy answered. “Otherwise, we will not be able to deliver to you.” The figures sounded right, but I now suspected we were being scammed.

“No problem, you don’t deliver it, I will come pick it up myself,” I said. Seasons Wine was just about 800 metres from our apartment.

“No ma’am, we are not delivering from the shop, all orders are being delivered from our godown,” the guy answered.

“Where is the godown? I will come there,” I answered. I knew now that we had probably been scammed.

“Ma’am, entry is not allowed at the godown, you will need to pay for the permit,” the guy said.

I was furious. I launched into the choicest expletives. Click. The line went silent.

For most of us, the internet is a collection of apps and websites that are run, in one way or another, by a few Big Tech American firms."

I dialled again, but the call wouldn’t go through. I went to the WhatsApp account he had messaged from. No messages went through. We were blocked.

Meanwhile, Vijay walked up to Seasons Wine Shop. “Hey, I just called this number of yours and placed an order, but the guy keeps saying it is in a godown? Where is my order?”

The Seasons Wine shop guy looked at the number and groaned. “Arre sir! You too?” He pointed to a large, prominent notice at the front of the shop with that number printed in large, bold font. “So many customers have complained to us! We are tired of complaining to Google about this. Don’t call this number. This is not ours.”

And that was it. There was nothing we could do, except perhaps lodge a police complaint. I had heard how hard it could be to get the police to take cyber fraud complaints seriously. Besides, I reasoned, we were at fault. We willingly transferred money to an account. Perhaps the police will say that, too?

That night, I saw Vijay meticulously type out Seasons Wines’ correct phone number and save it. I went to the Google listing of the business and left a review, warning others that the number listed on the business listing was fraudulent. Several others had left similar warnings. We had simply never bothered to check.

For most of us, the internet is a collection of apps and websites that are run, in one way or another, by a few...