Payment operators are creating a repository on fraudsters and scammers
Cyber frauds have increased manifold in the past year. To counter this, payment operators are coming together to share intel and create a repository on fraudsters and scammers. Their ultimate aim is to facilitate the use of this repository across payment platforms and blacklist them.
Payment operators are planning to set up a nationwide negative database that can be used across payment platforms. This will also serve as a repository of all fraudsters, types of fraud, and fraud heat maps across India.
The Long Term Plan
Payment operators are coming together under the aegis of the Payments Council of India. They are coming together to share data and set up a negative database for both merchants and customers. An official told the Economic Times, “This is quite the need of the hour as the negative database created by card network operators doesn’t always work on cash on delivery or UPI payments.”
Additionally, payment operators are also planning to create a common platform to share intel on different kinds of frauds. Every member platform will have to share their negative database to get access to such a list prepared on a large industrial scale.
Increasing Cyber frauds
RBI in their latest Annual Report had reported 2545 cases of fraud which amounts to Rs. 119 Crore done through online channels and card networks. This was 35% of the total frauds perpetrated last year. This number could’ve been even more if we account transactions through UPI as well. In April, the Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report suggested that about 59% of Indian adults experienced cybercrime in the last 12 months.
Combating Cyber Frauds
Recently the Ministry of Home Affairs has set up a Cybercrime portal for reporting online financial frauds, and also launched a new helpline number: 155260.
RBI in its latest Financial Stability Report (FSR) said it is working “more intensively with supervised entities to strengthen their cybersecurity resilience as well as mitigate these risks. For the financial ecosystem 2021 has seen risk emanating from cybersecurity lapses increased considerably.”
If you have suffered a cyber crime, here’s what you should do next.
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