According to a survey conducted by LocalCircles, around 47 per cent of urban Indians have revealed whether they or their family have been victims of financial fraud in the last three years. As much as 43 per cent of urban Indians have been victims of financial fraud in the previous three years with their credit card, while 30 per cent experienced fraud via UPI transactions. According to the survey, almost one in two credit card fraud victims experienced unauthorized charges by domestic and international merchants and websites.
Four out of 10 victims of UPI fraud said that the link or QR code sent to them to accept a payment led to money being debited from their account. Moreover, the RBI, UPI, and banks issuing credit cards need to put in place more protection to help prevent such financial frauds, according to the survey. The survey received over 23,000 responses from household consumers living across 302 districts in India. While 62 per cent of respondents were men, around 38 per cent were women.
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The survey said that consumer awareness needs to be created on priority for both UPI and credit card users. Moreover, safeguards must be built so no Indian credit cards can be charged without an OTP authentication. Also, increasing consumer awareness is important, for UPI. Along with these steps, it is also important to sensitize local police stations, so that staff can guide their citizens to file an online complaint within minutes, unlike the current state wherein a majority of the staff, even in urban India, are not capable of guiding a victim of online financial fraud.
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Among the people surveyed for financial fraud transactions, a few indicated more than one option; 43 per cent indicated “fraudulent transaction on credit card.” Also, 36 per cent indicated “fraudulent UPI transactions,” while 13 per cent admitted “fraudulent transactions on debit cards,” 19 per cent said “fraudulent transactions on ATM cards,” 30 per cent mentioned “other types of fraud financial transactions,” transactions,” and nine per cent of respondents did not give a clear reply, according to LocalCircles survey.
According to the LocalCircles survey, thousands of data vendors spanning India sell credit card data of Indian consumers. Personal information such as PAN card, Aadhar card, mobile number, email, and addresses are readily available for sale in databases. Also, credit card details are available with mobile numbers, emails, or addresses. Hence, anyone familiar with spreadsheets can join these databases to profile individuals. The survey explained that as these datasets are available in the public domain, this makes credit card holders extremely vulnerable to frauds as most international websites or apps do not need OTP authentication before charging an Indian credit card once the user has their credit card set to permit international transactions.
The survey also said that among the Indian household consumers who experienced credit card fraud in the last three years, almost one in two people experienced unauthorized charges by domestic and/or international merchants/websites. When it comes to credit card frauds, almost 53 per cent mentioned “unauthorized charges levied by unknown international mentioned “unauthorized charges levied by unknown international merchants/websites,” 53 per cent said “unauthorized charges levied by domestic merchants/ websites with whom we transact”, 41 per cent indicated “unauthorized charges levied by unknown domestic merchants/ websites” and 34 per cent mentioned “fraudulent transactions other than the ones listed above,” according to the survey.
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From the urban Indian household consumers who experienced UPI fraud in the previous three years, four out of 10 people shared that the link/QR code sent to them for a payment resulted in them losing money from their account. According to the survey, apart from card (credit and debit) fraud, other significant financial frauds are linked to online payments, mainly through UPI.
