Can your money be protected against online frauds like hacking, digital arrests, etc?
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced new features for India's digital payment ecosystem, including UPI tap-to-pay for PIN-less transactions up to 5,000 and multi-currency capabilities for forex on Bharat Connect, supporting Euro, British Pound, and other major currencies.
A frozen phone screen, a fake customer-care call, a screen-sharing request or even a duplicate SIM can give cybercriminals a route into your bank account.
Do not share OTPs, PINs, authentication codes, card numbers, card verification values (CVVs), KYC details, security answers, Internet-banking passwords or Aadhaar-based authentication credentials through SMS, e-mail or phone calls.
UPI transactions reached 22.35 billion in April, marking a 25 per cent increase compared to April 2025. UPI now accounts for 85 per cent of all digital transactions in India and is live in eight countries.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in India reached a record high in March, with 22.64 billion transactions, marking a significant increase from the previous year and highlighting the growing adoption of digital payments.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in India reached a record high in March, driven by increased adoption and global expansion. The system now accounts for 85% of digital transactions in India and is live in eight countries.
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will soon allow subscribers to withdraw their EPF and transfer it directly to their bank accounts through the UPI payment gateway. Testing of the facility has been completed, according to Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
Kerala Police have issued a warning about a new cyber fraud where scammers are using the image of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in fake social media advertisements to trick people into making online payments through PhonePe.
Two-factor authentication for all digital transactions, including UPI, is now mandatory in India, as per RBI guidelines, to enhance security and curb fraud.
Link your UPI app to a separate bank account or wallet that has only a limited sum.
The videos were shown so that the woman could learn about Islam, she said in her statement, which is part of the chargesheet submitted in a Nashik court last week.
'This will bring in a lot of net new users to UPI.'
'If you are not prudent, you may exceed your budget, and if it happens too often, you may end up in debt.'
Customers will qualify for compensation even if they mistakenly share the OTP.
From April 1, 2026, the Reserve Bank of India's new authentication directions modernise how every digital payment you make must be verified -- and place the burden of security squarely on your bank, not on you.
PhonePe said on Tuesday it has launched a service that will allow the fintech firm's Indian users traveling abroad to pay foreign merchants using Unified Payments Interface (UPI). 'UPI international' supports merchant outlets in UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, Nepal and Bhutan that have a local QR (quick response) code. Users will be able to make direct payments in a foreign currency from their Indian bank, like they do with international debit cards.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday asked fintech firms to focus on risk management at a time when criminals are using AI to mimic voices, clone identities and create lifelike videos to manipulate people.
There will be no charge for RuPay credit card use on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for transactions up to Rs 2,000 in line with the RBI direction, a recent NPCI circular said. RuPay credit card has been operational for the last four years, and all major banks are enabled and are issuing incremental cards for both commercial and retail segments. "During credit card on-boarding on the apps, the device binding and UPI PIN setting process shall include and be construed as customer consent for credit card enablement for all types of transactions," the circular dated October 4 said.
A petition has been filed in court alleging irregularities in the handling of belongings seized from former IPS officer Amitabh Thakur, who is currently jailed in Uttar Pradesh.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Tuesday launched a new service, which will enable over 40 crore feature phone users to undertake digital payments in a secure way. The service christened UPI (unified payments interface) '123PAY' is a three-step method to initiate and execute services for users which will work on simple phones which do not have an internet connection. Das said, as of now, the multifaceted features of UPI are mostly available only on smartphones, which excludes people from the lower rung of the society from an economic perspective, especially in the rural areas, from accessing the popular service, even though the smartphone prices are going down.
The transition to UPI-based ATMs will be gradual, and consumers will not immediately switch to using standalone UPI ATMs overnight.
'Just like oral hygiene, cyber hygiene must become a daily habit,' says Beena Vaheed, executive director, Bank of Baroda. 'It is not enough to rely only on banks, companies, or the government. Each of us must play our part.'
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
Digipin promises to revolutionise location-based services in India with safeguards.
Festive sales are expected to surge 27 per cent to cross Rs 120,000 crore in 2025, driving Amazon and Flipkart to expand warehousing capacity by millions of cubic feet and extend delivery networks to thousands of new pin codes -- an infrastructure buildout that could reshape India's retail landscape for years.
Post your financial planning queries for rediffGURU and financial planning expert, Colonel Sanjeev Govila.
Its statement also said Facebook does not use WhatsApp payments information for commercial purposes.
The interface allows you to add multiple banks and transfer money, even between payment wallets, for a fraction of existing costs
In today's rapidly evolving digital payment landscape, security concerns remain a top priority for stakeholders across sectors.
Walmart-owned fintech firm PhonePe said it has crossed 500 million lifetime registered users on its platform. With this milestone, 1 in 3 Indians are now on PhonePe. The company said it is the first Indian internet company to have reached this scale globally. This milestone has been achieved in just over 7 years since the PhonePe UPI (Unified Payments Interface) payments launched in August 2016.
Tripti Rai explains the unique features of Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app developed by the National Payment Corporation of India.
India recorded 50,035 cases of cyber crime in 2020, an 11.8 per cent surge in such offences over the previous year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week once again cautioned bank customers of fraud, including those in Know-Your-Customer (KYC) cases. In fact, certain frauds have become more prevalent than others, and being aware of them is the first step towards protect yourself. Mayur Joshi, chief executive officer, Indiaforensic.com, a company engaged in the prevention, detection, and investigation of frauds says, "It is necessary to learn, to read about these scams."
A 40-year-old freelance journalist has claimed a person 'hypnotised' him over the phone and duped him of Rs 40,000, but police and experts said this is one of the 'most normal kinds of cyber fraud' and not a case of hypnosis.
WhatsApp on Wednesday said it expects to facilitate the purchase of "affordable sachet-sized" health insurance through its platform by the end of the year as part of its efforts to provide users in India with greater access to financial solutions. The Facebook-owned company noted that its 'Payments' feature is now available to users across the country (currently up to 20 million users) with support from banking partners - State Bank of India, HDFC, ICICI and Axis Bank.
Do not trust any incoming phone calls or mails that ask you to install any file or programme, warns Niranjan Upadhye, general manager-fraud risk management, Worldline India.
As unified payments interface gets popular, cash transactions will come down as most small payments will be routed through this.
In such frauds customers get calls asking them to share their OTP in order to postpone their loan EMIs. Once the OTP is shared the amount is immediately siphoned away by fraudsters.
The Unified Payment Interface could propel banking into a new era
To educate customers on the modus operandi of financial fraudsters and share inputs on safe banking habits, banks are now coming up with awareness campaigns aimed at preventing customers from falling into the trap of fraudsters.
