Sudhir Kumar / New Delhi
The government has said that amid the rising number of digital payment frauds, considerable measures have been taken to combat this form of cybercrime. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has detailed that in the financial year 2022-23, as many as 6,699 cases amounting to fraud of more than two hundred seventy crore rupees were recorded.
The MoS informed that in the financial year 2023-24, more than twenty-nine thousand cases amounting to more than fourteen hundred and seventy crores were recorded across the country. Mr Chaudhary said that the government has taken a slew of measures to combat the threat of digital fraud. He said that the RBI issued Master Directions on Digital Payment Security Controls in February 2021 to combat web and mobile app threats.
He said that these guidelines mandate the banks to implement a common minimum standard of security controls for various payment channels like the Internet, mobile banking, card payment, etc. The RBI and banks have also been taking up awareness campaigns through short SMS, radio campaigns, and publicity on the prevention of ‘cybercrime’, etc. The MoS said that the RBI has further launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tool ‘MuleHunter’ for identification of ‘money mules’ and advised banks and financial institutions to use it. Mr Chaudhary further said that to prevent fraud related to UPI transactions, the NPCI has implemented device binding between mobile numbers and devices, two-factor authentication through PIN, daily transaction limits, and limits and curbs on use cases, etc.