Reliance uncovered a scam in May 2025 in which scammers used phony IDs and offers to deceive users into making multiple UPI payments by impersonating Tira agents over WhatsApp and phone calls.
The Delhi High Court banned a number of individuals from using the Tira trademark of Reliance Retail Limited after learning that they had engaged in widespread financial fraud and impersonation against the brand's clientele.
On July 7, 2025, Justice Saurabh Banerjee issued the ex parte ad-interim injunction in a trademark action that Reliance Retail had filed. The Court observed that 8,919 consumer complaints, including 666 in Delhi alone, were filed over a two-month period, indicating that the scam had taken on a pan-Indian character.
The Court stated that "the facts disclose that the defendant no. 1's actions are nothing short of blatant impersonation with a view to defraud the unwary and innocent consumers who are only there to engage with the plaintiff's trademark Tira."
Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi on behalf of Reliance Retail stated that the company's beauty and personal care brand Tira was introduced in April 2023 and has since gained a significant amount of goodwill. For Tira and its variations, the business has registered trademarks in several classes.
The company claims that in May 2025, it learned of a widespread scam in which anonymous people were posing as Tira representatives over the phone and through WhatsApp. They used phony identity cards, promotional offers, and claims of unsuccessful transactions or order problems to trick customers into making duplicate payments using QR codes and UPI.
The Court was notified that consumers in cities including as Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and Jaipur had submitted more than 8,900 complaints. It was calculated that the entire loss incurred as a result exceeded ₹41 lakhs.
The Court observed that numerous rogue mobile phones and fictitious digital identities were being used in a planned and coordinated manner to carry out the scheme.
According to the Court, "the way the aforementioned financial scam was carried out carries the potential of significant harm and detriment."
It stated that consumers were greatly confused and misled by the use of marks that were exactly the same as Tira's.
In the face of rapidly evolving digital scams, it further emphasized the necessity of real-time enforcement to keep rights from being reduced to "toothless tiger(s)".
The Court then went on and gave the following instructions:
The Tira trademark and its variations, including confusingly similar marks, are prohibited from being used by Defendant No. 1 (impersonators) and all related parties.
Telecom service providers (defendants 2 through 4) are required to reveal the subscriber information of the individuals who used the impersonators' mobile phones and to block and suspend those numbers.
The purpose of WhatsApp (defendant no.5) is to block accounts linked to the rogue phones and reveal the basic subscriber details of the individuals who used them.
Blocking UPI IDs and QR codes connected to the scam and disclosing account holder details of those numbers used to commit the fraud are the responsibilities of the National Payments Corporation of India (defendant no. 6).
These organizations have also been instructed to take action against any illegitimate accounts or numbers that Reliance notifies in the future.
The Union Ministry of Electronics, Information, and Technology (defendants 7 and 8) and the Department of Telecommunications are responsible for ensuring that pertinent intermediates comply.
On November 6, 2025, the Court will next hear the case.
Advocates Sai Krishna Rajagopal, Sidharth Chopra, Yatinder Garg, Disha Sharma, and Abjay Aren from Saikrishna & Associates briefed Senior Advocate Sethi, who represented Reliance.
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