New Delhi:
Digital frauds including in UPI payments have doubled in the last one year, exposing the growing vulnerability of the country’s digital payment ecosystem.
Data from the Union Home Ministry shows that in 2023-24, as many as 13.42 lakh incidents of UPI frauds were reported, compared to the 7.25 lakh reported in the previous year.
The Centre has informed parliament that frauds to the tune of Rs 1,087 crore took place in 2023-24. The corresponding figure in the previous year was Rs 573 crore.
Digital frauds include a wide range of criminal activities — debit/credit card misuse, ransomware attacks and usage of much accounts (bank accounts being operated by third party to launder stolen funds).
Today, the ministry informed the Rajya Sabha that in order to strengthen the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes including “Pig Butchering” scam, many steps have been initiated by centre.
Due to continuous monitoring so far, more than Rs 4,386 crore have been saved in more than 13.36 lakh complaints.
“Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC) has been established in MHA where representatives of major banks, financial intermediaries, payment aggregators, telecom service providers, IT intermediaries and representatives of States/UTs Law Enforcement Agency are working together for immediate action and seamless cooperation to tackle cyber crime,” Minister of State (Home Affairs) Sanjay Kumar Bandi told Rajya Sabha.
The ministry said more than 3,962 Skype IDs and 83,668 Whatsapp accounts have been identified and blocked.
Data till February indicates that more than 7.81 lakh SIM cards and 2,08,469 IMEIs as reported by the police have been blocked by the Central government.
A portal has also been launched in collaboration with Banks and Financial Institutions to identify cyber criminals. So far, more than 8 lakh suspect records and more than 20 lakh mule accounts have been shared with the participating entities that helped save more than Rs. 2889 crore.
The government has said in order to prevent payment-related frauds — including UPI transaction frauds — various initiatives have been taken up by the Government, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
These include device binding between the customer’s mobile number and device, two-factor authentication through PIN, daily transaction limits, and restrictions on use cases.
The NPCI also provides a fraud-monitoring solution to all banks that would involve generating alerts and declining transactions using AI/ML-based models.
Interestingly, the Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India has been working towards linking UPI with the Fast Payment Systems of other countries to facilitate cross-border payments.
These efforts include interlinking the FPS on inoperable basis as well as provisioning of payments infrastructure in other countries.
At present, UPI is live in seven nations (UAE, Nepal, Bhutan, Singapore, Mauritius, France and Sri Lanka).
Interlinking of UPI with the fast payment systems of other countries will enable the users making real-time, transparent and cost-effective digital transactions.
“This will ensure seamless remittance transfer and will help Indian tourists visiting abroad for making seamless payments.” an official said.