India Saw UPI Frauds Worth INR 485 Cr In H1 FY25

India witnessed 6.32 Lakh cases of UPI payment frauds worth INR 485 Cr in the first six months of the ongoing financial year 2024-25 (FY25), as per government data. 

Minister of state for finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, informed the Parliament that the country saw 13.42 Lakh cases of UPI frauds totalling INR 1,087 Cr in FY24. 

The incidents of UPI fraud grew 85% year-on-year (YoY) in FY24 from 7.25 Lakh cases in FY23, while the total amount involved in such cases jumped nearly 90% YoY from INR 573 Cr in the fiscal year ended March 2023. 

The data was collated from complaints filed by users on the Central Payment Fraud Information Registry (CPFIR), a platform to report payment-related frauds. 

Meanwhile, Chaudhary also said that the government has taken a slew of steps to crack the whip on the growing number of digital frauds in the country, including two factor authentication, daily transaction limit and curbs on use cases. 

He also said that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) offers an AI-powered fraud monitoring solution to banks to flag and decline fraudulent transactions. Besides, the Centre has also launched a National Cybercrime Reporting Portal to report financial frauds. 

Additionally, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has also launched the “Chakshu” facility on the Sanchar Saathi portal to report fraudulent or suspected fraud communications through SMS and Whatsapp.

The rising number of cases related to UPI frauds come at a time when digital payments continue to see rapid adoption across the country. In FY24, the payments infrastructure logged 13,112 Cr transactions worth INR 199.96 Lakh Cr. 

The momentum continued as the number of UPI transactions soared 45% YoY to 1,658 Cr in October 2024 and their value surged 37% to INR 23.5 Lakh Cr. 

PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm continued their stranglehold over the digital payments ecosystem as the three players together accounted for more than 90% of the total transactions. 

Meanwhile, the NPCI is now also exploring various avenues to further expand its footprint globally. Its international arm, NPCI International, is said to be in talks with 10 more countries to deploy UPI and RuPay stack.

India has already partnered with multiple nations, including Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Bhutan, Nepal, the UAE, and Canada, so far to offer UPI services.