Hold on to your dough, digital fraudster around!

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to an inevitable surge in the use of technology including digital modes of payment and transaction in Bengaluru. The Government of India has been taking several measures to promote digital payment in order to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

With the use of digital payment apps, customers can use a self-service platform and pay invoices from anywhere at any time. Whether it is person-to-person payments or business transactions, FinTech companies and their innovations have made the way people transact convenient and easier than ever before.

For a majority of people in Bengaluru, especially youngsters, instant access and convenience are the biggest draws of digital transactions. However, there’s also a growing threat – a rise in the number of online payment frauds.

According to a recent survey by YouGov, UPI continued to be the preferred mode and grew 43 per cent, while use of cards was up by 40 per cent and Netbanking by 10 per cent among people since the pandemic began.

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has gained immense popularity, especially in urban areas. It powers multiple bank accounts (of any participating banks) into a single mobile application that allows several banking features, seamless fund routing and merchant payments under a single roof. Currently, 224 banks are live on the UPI

“There is a constant decrease in cash transactions,” said Sachin, a cashier at Behtar Supermarket in the city. “Even to pay for a tea at a stall, people use apps such as Gpay, PhonePe or Paytm,” he added.

While it is good that people are adapting to the latest technologies, the increase in digital payment fraud is also undeniable.
According to reports from Bengaluru police, there are many incidents where people including shop owners have been cheated of online payments. Police said most of them are not tech-savvy and have less knowledge of mobile technology despite using expensive smart phones.

“After a payment has been made, customers show us their mobile screen showing the payment done status. Sometimes when we check our bank account, no money would have been credited to us,” a shopkeeper said.

A police officer from the Bengaluru Cyber Economics and Narcotics department said that various types of digital payment frauds have seen a surge, such as confidence tricks, identity theft and hacked digital wallet. All these scams target real-time transactions with superlative ease, in part due to the lack of awareness amongst the masses.

Technologies such as UPI that link your bank accounts, and credit and debit cards with your phone number and digital wallets. While this simplifies transactions and payments, it also means that fraudsters can digitally access your account via your mobile phone, phone number, information sharing, hacking, password theft and so on.

Also, there are many fake UPI and digital wallet apps available on the Internet that mimic the design, logo and name of genuine banking apps. Unaware users download these apps instead of the original ones, thus exposing their sensitive financial details and payments.

Safeguard your money with these precautions
1. Use only the official app produced by the financial service provider, popular UPI service or mobile wallet. Read their description before installing and look for their ratings and reviews from other users.
2. Enable high security with two-factor authentications on all payment apps to ensure no payment is done without entering a PIN and OTP.
3. Never disclose any financial information such as OTP, personal credential, password or PIN to any unauthorised person.
4. Do not give in to any money requests without verifying the identity of the sender.
5. Ignore any WhatsApp forward or SMS that asks you to either scan a QR code, share information or click on a link to claim money/ refund/ cashback/ discount/ prize.
6. Do not entertain any request for KYC verification. Banks and service providers do not send suspicious links to perform such activities.
7. In case of a f