Reverse engineering TimesPrime's Juspay payment integration revealed unpublished promotional discount codes (TPLITEHDFC) in the checkout API response, allowing subscription purchases for only ₹1.
It was quite an interesting experience attempting to purchase a TimesPrime Membership.
Firstly, I logged in using my mobile number and proceeded to the payment page, only to be greeted with a rather steep price of 1199 rupees and a paltry selection of two offers, providing a mere 100-200 rupees discount.
Feeling curious, I decided to debug the APIs and discovered that the JUSPAY payment gateway was in use. After some significant digging, I stumbled upon an offer code buried deep within the API, which was not visible on the UI, along with a few other hidden offers.
Interestingly, this new offer code was applicable only to HDFC cards. Armed with this information, I was able to reduce the payable amount to a mere 1 rupee!
What an experience it was, and I have attached screenshots as a memento. Check that out.
