other digital divide

Bill Gates said in 1996, “Your phone is your wallet.” It looked like something out of a soon-to-be-launching Harry Potter fantasy-fiction series!

In just a few decades, this is an everyday reality, and how! Not elite, exclusive or luxury technology. I have just paid the milkman with my UPI app and so, I am sure, do you. Mr Anand Mahindra just tweeted a picture of a formal cow like our own cow boom-boom honey Down South, with a QR code pasted on its forehead to scan and donate.

UPI, the payment method based on it, has bridged the Indian socio-economic digital divide quite nicely and surprisingly fast. However, it is a different type of digital divide that we should pay attention to, namely, the potential for fraud when we use our phones to make payments.

What is UPI?

First came internet banking, more than 15 years ago, freeing us from physical checks, exchanging them in person or through the mail, presenting them at a bank, and waiting for money to be received. All these may take up to 15 days depending on the location of the two banks, banking holidays and postal delays.

It was magical to sit at your computer and make this NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) payment, which will be completed in just two or three days. Soon, the service split into instant payments for large amounts (RTGS or real-time gross settlement) and instant payments without waiting to enable a payer account (IMPS or Immediate Payment Service), which allows one-time payments. easy for.

When the smartphone and the app started working, internet banking moved to the app and transformed into IMPS mobile wallet, a step removed from your bank account. You have to put money from your bank account into the wallet and know my wallet information to pay me, it’s more complicated if you and I deal with different banks.

This struggling move saw an evolving response in 2018 to United Payments Interface or UPI-based payments. UPI is the clearing house of payments in almost every bank. Choose an app, download and install it on your smartphone, authenticate your SIM through an OTP process, enable the bank account linked to your (same) mobile number, and you are ready to go. You can make or receive payments and also check your balance.

You can feed a bank account number and IFSC (Indian Financial System Code) for NEFT and start making payments! In the simple world we live in, your vendor’s VPA or virtual payment address is enough. This vegetable will also be shop@bankname or mobilenumber@bankname which makes sharing easy! Going a step further, on some apps, if you and the seller use the same app, their mobile number is enough to make the payment.

The easiest way is to make the payment by scanning the QR code of the payer. It cuts down on language barriers and misspellings and misspellings.

You can link your multiple bank accounts to the app and make specific payments from a specific bank account. Today’s top UPI apps include PhonePe, Paytm, Google Pay, Amazon Pay and BHIM, the latter being a government offering. There are dozens of others and their collective use is growing phenomenally.

Demonetisation and pandemics may have been the triggers, but the ease of use and accessibility of technology certainly laid the foundation.

point of trouble

Roses always have thorns. The technology used by a large number of people would be susceptible to fraud. We don’t need to go to hacking or hi-tech methods, but simple confidence tricks are enough to deceive people using the UPI app.

For example, if your password or PIN falls into the wrong hands, writing it down can get you in trouble. Sharing them with strangers and allowing them to use your phone and app is equally risky.

Some common frauds take advantage of the fact that we cannot explain how the app works and what does and doesn’t do online transactions.

For example, when you initiate a payment, you will need to enter your PIN to complete the transaction. However, you do not need a PIN to receive payments. This may be a cause of confusion. Let’s say you are selling your old furniture online. A fraudulent buyer, instead of paying you, will generate a request for money from you through the UPI app and ask you to enter your PIN to accept the request. Do this and, in fact, you have paid them!

They’ll easily pressurize you, giving you no time to think or doubt, to make sure you’re nervous and confused.

Some UPI apps have online/real-time chat and it is easy for users to mistake the chat for official instructions from the app itself. So, if the fraudster asks for your PIN on chat, you can believe that your app is prompting you to enter the PIN. You just have to be alert always.

Another fraud is based on your registered mobile number (RMN). Your phone / the SIM card of your RMN is at the heart of your account, its authentication and operation. Fraudsters try to imitate your sim by cloning it or tricking you into just cooperating so they can get a replacement sim!

Then it is up to you to receive the OTP (One-Time Password) and do digital transactions on your accounts.

For example, you may get a call from someone posing as an employee of your mobile phone company and posing for anything from SIM upgradation to KYC verification requirement. If you just give them the OTP they will offer to do the same for you online / on their behalf.

The process can also be initiated by an SMS that sounds dangerous or threatening. Something along the lines of your bank account or credit card being inactive, or your SIM.

Of course, if you help the Nigerian prince reach his super destiny, you will not answer him an offer of a fortune. But when you get an SMS that your bank account will be deactivated, won’t you be worried and want to reply?

Conversely, if something like this happens then your antenna will be damaged as you should never share any OTP with anyone and definitely should not do anything related to your SIM card or bank account. Your bank will never ask you for it and neither will your mobile service provider. Another widely prevalent fraud is through fake apps. Once downloaded and installed, these apps can steal a lot of your personal information. Bottomline, never download apps except from authorized sources.

A basic precaution would be to keep a low balance in the bank account linked to your UPI app. This way you minimize the risk of falling victim to a scam.

Support

What should be done if something happens? Immediately call your bank and file a complaint. There is a link to make a complaint in your UPI app itself. You can also complain to the Cyber ​​Crime Cell.

In terms of cash, being alert and attentive, even a little crazy, will go a long way in keeping you safe!

(The author is a Business Journalist specializing in Insurance and Corporate History)